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US Retailer Aims to Give Tech Experience to Immigrant Teens

by Abdulaziz Osman

   A major U.S. electronic retailer says it wants to help immigrant and
   underprivileged teens gain the technology skills they'll need for the
   job market.

   Best Buy, in partnership with a local nongovernmental organization
   known as the Brian Coyle Center, has opened a tech center in
   Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside area. The center provides after-school
   computer classes for teens in the area, many of whom come from East
   African immigrant families.

   The company plans to open 60 such centers nationwide by 2020. Trish
   Walker, the president of service for Best Buy, said the aim is to train
   a million teens each year to help them be prepared for tech-related
   jobs.

   "Here, teens can learn so many skills, from coding to web programming,
   music production, 3-D design, editing, fashion design, getting
   leadership skills, entrepreneurship, mentoring from others," Walker
   said at the opening ceremony for the center. "Great stuff to be able to
   prepare the teens for workforce for the future. Eighty percent of the
   future [jobs] are tech-related."

   Hamza Nur is a Somali youth who spent four years learning at the first
   Minneapolis-area Best Buy tech center, where he learned how to
   digitally edit and draw.

   "I learned so much, and am grateful," Nur said at the ceremony. "I
   think this is a great idea that we can all learn from. I think the idea
   of tech center is pretty great one, because it lets all the youth of
   Cedar have a great experience with technology."

   Abdirahman Mukhtar, the youth program director at the Brian Coyle
   Center, says the center gives young people a positive outlet through
   which to channel their energy, and it helps to keep them away from
   drugs and gangs, which have been recurring problems in the area.

   "The time of the program is after-school time, and it's [then] that a
   youth has free time and can commit negative habits," he told VOA's
   Somali service.

   Minneapolis is home to the United States' largest communities of Somali
   and East African immigrants, most of whom came to the U.S. because of
   armed conflicts in their home countries.