Qatar Career Development Center (QCDC) has announced that it will hold the 2018 Career Guidance Stakeholders Platform at Qatar National Convention Centre on April 3, in partnership with the Unesco Doha office and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
The objective of the 2018 platform is to engage stakeholders in the process of developing a “well-integrated career guidance system in Qatar that will help Qatari youth discover, develop and use their talents to achieve their future needs and aspirations, as well as the future needs of the country”, QCDC has said in a statement.
The theme of this year’s platform is “Moving operationally to strategically enhance career guidance in Qatar through cross-sectoral collaboration”. The event will address the need to strategically tackle a wide range of perceived shortcomings and obstacles related to the process of transforming Qatar’s existing career guidance system, which is at its early stages of development, into “a well-developed” system.
QCDC is a member of Qatar Foundation.
Abdulla al-Mansoori, director of QCDC, said: “The second round of the Career Guidance Stakeholders Platform comes as a commitment on the part of QCDC to deliver on the priorities stipulated by His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, related to the current Arabian Gulf situation and the future direction of the country. Key among such priorities is ‘investing in human development’ as a powerful means for building Qatar’s ‘economic independence’ and ‘protecting its national security’.
“In light of the spirit of His Highness’ speech, and for purposes of contributing to the process of human development in Qatar, career guidance stakeholders must work collectively on facing the challenges posed by today’s economy through establishing effective career guidance and counselling practices that would help Qatari youth pursue their goals and serve Qatar.”
This year’s event will be organised on the basis of the 2016 platform’s recommendations and actions. The 2016 platform brought together more than 150 experts from various institutions related to education, the labour market and youth empowerment, career development centres, national level planning and development agencies and other organisations.
The 2018 platform hosts a series of breakout sessions focusing on the development of the basic tools needed to develop the national-level career guidance framework, standards and policies, education and labour market information system, stakeholder’s roles in, and responsibilities for, implementing Qatar’s career guidance component of the 2017-2022 Education and Training Sector Strategy, and technology-driven career guidance services and resources, in addition to further development of entrepreneurship practices in Qatar, the statement explained.
The programme also includes eight focus group meetings centred on various topics, including how best to disseminate best practices related to the organisation of a school career day, design and implementation of effective student internship programme, development and implementation of post-graduation career planning programmes, and maximising the impact of career guidance programmes as an essential component of national talent development programmes.
In addition, the programme provides concurrent learning and development workshops for school principals, counsellors and students, as well as their parents. The overall purpose of such workshops is to enhance the knowledge and skills of their target audience in order help them effectively perform their respective career guidance roles.