Injaz Qatar, in partnership with the French embassy and Thales, is gearing up to launch the first ‘Job Champions’ work-readiness competition in the country. 
The initiative promises to give educators, students, parents and employers a fresh perspective on career training programmes for university students. 
The competition is open to all university students currently studying one of the business and engineering majors such as marketing, accounting, finance, management, human resource and information technology. 
Through a four-module programme spanning several weeks, selected students will learn and practise the whole range of skills they will need to take up positions in the private or public sector as soon as they leave 
university. 
Injaz Qatar chairperson Sheikha Hanadi bint Nasser al-Thani said, “In addition to academic qualifications, students need to be work ready, in other words, they need interpersonal skills, behavioural adaptability and a positive attitude to adapt and succeed. 
“Job Champions equips graduates with such skills. The competition meets the country’s increasing demand for youth education, which is a crucial element of human development, one of the pillars of Qatar 
National Vision 2030.”
The first two modules will be a learning process, and will include job shadowing alongside professional mentoring at Thales in Qatar. This will be in addition to classroom sessions, workshops and psychometric testing. These two modules will equip each participant with the practical skills they need to enter the workplace immediately upon graduation. 
Module three is a business competition that will give groups of students an opportunity to combine their academic learning with the skills they acquired in modules one and two, to come up with a solution to a real-life problem at Thales. The winning team will go on to the fourth module, which is the grand prize – an all-expense paid three-week internship with Thales in France.
With the application process almost over, 24 students have been shortlisted to form groups, with each group consisting of students from a variety of majors. The first two modules will take place in March and the competition module will be held in April. The three-week internship in France is scheduled for July to coincide with universities’ summer break.
French ambassador Eric Chevallier said, “This initiative aims at reinforcing the participation of French companies to Qatar’s knowledge-based economy and capacity building, in line with Qatar National 
Vision 2030.”
Frederic Sallet, managing director of Thales in Qatar, said: “By training the next generation of Qatari talents, we want to share our insights and knowledge to enable these young men and women to gain a holistic 
understanding of the industry.”


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