Doha: To connect education outcomes with local job market, Qatar Career Development Center (QCDC) — a member of Qatar Foundation — is providing career guidance programmes to students and educating them about the specialisations available in the country.
“Career guidance in early stage enables students to get a clear roadmap for determining their professional life in future,” said Head of Career Programs and Services at QCDC, Saad Abdullah Al Kharji.
Speaking in a Qatar TV programme recently, Al Kharji said that career guidance solved a number of problems such as oversupply or shortage of employees in some specialised jobs and recruiting an employee for a job in which he is not interested.
“It is the nature of human being to look for easy job or those about which he has enough information as he usually scares of trying for new things. They prefer in general to choose their careers in those fields where their relatives and friends are working,” said Al Kharji.
He said that QCDC offers programmes to educate students and youngsters about career opportunities and required academic tracks. For example, he said: “Career Village programme of QCDS was adopted by many State institutions in health, education, media, military, civil aviation and other sectors.”
He said that under this programme the trainees got an opportunity to visit these institutions and learn practical lessons with experts enabling them to discover new areas of specialisation which are needed in the country.
Speaking about the Career Advising System (CAS), he said that CAS is an electronic career planning system developed by QCDC in collaboration with Kuder Inc., a world leader in career planning services. “The programme enables to conduct tests for students to assess their educational capabilities and interests to determine suitable universities and job areas for them.”
To a question about Facilitating Career Development Training Programme offered by QCDS, he said that the programme is first of its kind in Qatar and GCC region and is accredited by the internationally reputed National Career Development Association (NCDA).
“Qualified mentors are running the programme. Since last four years, we are providing this programme to students. An agreement was signed with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education allowing opening files for students to conduct the tests and make the data available,” Al Kharji said.
He said that the programme was developed based on the data from Qatari job market, educational institutions operating in the country and universities abroad in which Qatari students are pursuing their higher studies.
“The tests determine the interests of students and their educational capabilities in three to four areas given that students discover the best suitable universities to pursue their studies and job areas to make their careers in future,” said Al Kharji.
