ITU Youth Education Scheme (YES) scholarship initiative

1. Background

Young people are generally among the best promoters of ICTs and are key contributors to the building of an inclusive Information Society. Recognizing this reality, ITU established a dedicated Youth Programme in April 2003 with emphasis on capacity building, education and work experience in ICTs.

As part of this area of work, the Youth Education Scheme "YES" was established with the support of ITU Member States and ITU Development Sector Members such as Vodafone (U.K), ANACOM (Portugal), National Telecommunication Institute — NTI (Egypt), ALCATEL and Thales Communications (France) and NOKIA Corporation (Finland).

Thanks to its sponsors, YES scholarships have been awarded every academic year since 2003. To-date, YES initiative awarded fifty (50) scholarships to young future leaders in telecommunication and related fields, mainly from Least Developed Countries and developing countries, from all the regions of the world.

2. Objective

The Youth Education Scheme "YES" scholarship initiative aims to support needy and deserving young people from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and developing countries gain access to training and a career in telecommunications or related fields.

3. Eligibility Requirements

YES applicants participate in a competition with strict selection procedures and criteria, which respect geographic and gender balance. YES ensures transparency in the selection process. ITU handles the application process and presents a short list of candidates to the sponsor/s. The YES scholarship is awarded only following validation of the proposed candidates by the sponsors.

The endeavour of the selection process is to identify talented young people who have a strong will to continue their education in telecommunication or related fields, aiming at contributing through their achieved knowledge to the development of their communities, countries and regions.

In this regard, each candidate must:

• Come from LDCs or developing countries (non-OECD country);

• Be between 20 and 30 years of age;

• Provide a very good school curriculum;

• Provide two written recommendations (preferably from professors of their University);

• Provide an essay indicating his/her motivation towards completing their studies in telecommunication or related fields.

Priority is given to applicants who wish to continue their studies in universities in their own or neighbouring countries.

4. Definition of Yes Scholarships

Youth Education Scheme award scholarships cover the costs of tuition fees only. Tuition fees are paid by ITU directly to the universities upon presentation of the relevant invoice. YES scholarships do not exceed ten thousand U.S. Dollars (USD 10 000) per applicant.

5. Access to YES Scholarships

The YES scholarship contest is launched every year in March and the YES winners’ award is held in June/July.

The allocation of YES scholarships currently the Youth Programme depends on the donations from the sponsors from the ITU membership.