By: Gurpreet Kambo, News Editor
“I believe education is a basic human right and should be free for everyone,” said Samad Raza, founder and director of Emerge SFU. Emerge SFU is a new group of students at SFU who are looking to give back to the community by holding a series of free workshops on employability skills for SFU students.
“Emerge strives to instill valuable industry skills in SFU students through a series of workshops over the course of four weeks, starting in January. These workshops will be open to SFU students from any faculty, giving them the opportunity to learn skills they might not typically be exposed to in their program,” explained Raza.
The first series will be an introduction to the field of digital design skills, in particular User Interface (UI/UX) design.
“Our main goal is to give students the opportunity to build high-demand skills that they may not typically be exposed to during their program. By providing a free, easy-to-access program on campus that provides engaging workshops to teach these skills, we hope to improve their toolbox of employable skills and guide them into a career path they are passionate about,” added Raza.
On how this idea came about, Raza said that “Many of my friends in communications and arts were having difficulties landing co-op jobs due to lack of tech skills and they asked me to help them learn some graphic design and social media marketing skills. So I did some research and found that many students are facing similar problems. That’s why I decided to start a workshop series program to help all SFU students learn new skills and have a successful Career.”
The first workshop series takes place on Thursdays from 5:30 — 7 p.m. at SFU Surrey campus. Additionally, the first session is on January 16, and takes place over four weeks. No experience is necessary, and at the end of the series, participants will have a digital design portfolio of their own, and a foundation of digital design skills to build upon.
Raza added, “We certainly plan to expand our program and help even more students. I dream of opening this program to all students, not just those from SFU.”
Registration opens on January 4. Visit Emerge SFU’s Facebook page after January 4 for details on how to register. https://www.facebook.com/EmergeSFU/
