GEMS Education, a K-12 private education provider, and DataCamp, a leading platform for AI and data upskilling, announced a new partnership that will give 60,000 students and 10,000 teachers across the GEMS network access to the full catalogue of DataCamp’s interactive and hands-on courses. Students and teachers will access learning resources at no cost via DataCamp Classrooms, making it one of the largest single commitments under the initiative and the first-of-its-kind for it in the UAE.
The partnership brings hands-on learning in areas including AI, data literacy, Python, SQL and other industry-relevant technologies into the school environment, with the first cohorts starting this academic year. GEMS plans to widen access across its network and work AI learning into the subjects students already take, so that using these tools becomes part of an ordinary school day rather than a separate programme.
The UAE has become one of the fastest-growing AI talent markets in the world, ahead of the US, UK, Germany and France – making it an epicentre of the changes impacting the global labour market. The programme will also provide GEMS educators with access to the platform, enabling teachers to develop their own AI and data capability and explore how these skills can be incorporated into classroom learning. Both teachers and students can work towards industry certifications, including credentials from Microsoft, AWS and GitHub. For students heading into engineering, computer science or analytics, that means starting higher education or their careers already familiar with the tools in highest demand today, and with clear evidence of their skills.
“AI fluency is becoming an essential part of being ready for the world students are entering, but fluency means more than knowing how to use the latest tool. It means understanding how AI and data work, knowing how to question what they produce and being able to apply them responsibly to real problems,” said Dino Varkey, Group CEO, GEMS Education. “Our partnership with DataCamp gives our students and teachers the opportunity to learn by doing. It further enables us to make practical data and AI skills part of a future-ready education.”
“The UAE now ranks first in the world for growth in AI talent concentration, and AI became a mandatory subject in government schools here this academic year. The region has decided where it is going. We see the same pattern in the enterprises we work with across the region – banks, government entities and logistics groups are all going back to the fundamentals, because the teams that get real value from AI are the ones who understand how data and models actually work.
“GEMS is applying that logic years earlier in a learner’s life. A student who has written Python, queried a dataset and earned a Microsoft or AWS credential before leaving school starts their career already ahead and across 60,000 students within the group, that sets a benchmark for the region,” said Sam Davoodi, GTM Lead, Middle East and Africa at DataCamp.
The partnership forms part of GEMS Education’s broader approach to AI, which includes developing teacher capability, student AI literacy, AI-enabled learning and research and collaboration with leading technology organisations. GEMS has established the Global Education AI Hub and through its schools like GEMS School of Research and Innovation, provides environments for research, experimentation and the development of new approaches to AI and technology in education.
