Sky News Arabia Launches ‘Search for a Star’ Campaign to Recruit New Faces

Sky News Arabia has recently launched an innovative campaign entitled ‘Search for a Star’ to identify and train talented young Arab students looking to enter the world of media. 

The campaign is held in collaboration with 15 universities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan and is part of Sky News Arabia’s 9th annual graduate training programme.

“Sky News Arabia has tremendous faith in the youth,” said Mahra Al Yaqoubi, Head of Training Services at Sky News Arabia. “We are committed to providing these young talents with opportunities to break into the media sector. With that in mind, we launched this campaign as an initiative to support young Arabs who aspire to work in the media sector and be seen and heard by a wide audience from across the Arab region through Sky News Arabia’s diverse platforms.”

“’Search for a Star’ is part of our Training Programme, first launched in 2012, to reflect the network’s dedication to the youth and of course, towards training and qualifying a new generation of media professionals in the region,” added Al Yaqoubi.

Participating universities are set to announce the campaign and open doors for applications, inviting interested students to submit their entries before February 17 across three categories including TV, Radio and Digital. Each university will nominate 20 applicants to join the campaign, after which applications would undergo a thorough assessment carried out by an expert panel of judges from Sky News Arabia to shortlist the top performing submissions. Shortlisted students will enter a competition to present innovative television, radio, and digital content that would be published on the Sky News Arabia social pages and website and voted for by members of the public to choose the wining 16 entries.  

Winners will be announced at a special ceremony at the New York University Abu Dhabi campus before joining Sky News Arabia’s training programme and take part in practical and theory-based courses at the channel’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi. Upon completion of their training, Sky News Arabia will offer 6 outstanding performers full-time fieldwork job placements. Students that perform exceptionally well during their fieldwork job placements will also have the opportunity to take part in an all-expenses paid internships at the Sky News Arabia bureaus in the United States and the United Kingdom.  

The campaign coincides with Sky News Arabia’s recent launch of enhanced news bulletins and popular programmes that feature new content and programming across the network’s screens, digital platforms, and smart applications.