Qatar’s increasing labour demands, especially in engineering technology, has encouraged the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) to continually update its programmes to meet the needs of industry employers, vice president-Academic Samah Gamar has said.
“There is a very high demand especially for chemical processing and mechanical engineering technology (programmes),” she stressed, adding that many students are asking to extend beyond the three-year diploma and be able to have an opportunity to complete a degree in the field as well.
Gamar was speaking on the sidelines of CNA-Q receiving four accreditation certificates from the Canadian Technology Accreditation Board (CTAB) for its engineering technology programmes recently.
While the College is nearing 800 students in these engineering technology diploma courses, she noted that there is also a waiting list to get into the programmes.
“One of the differentiating features of the College is that we only offer programmes that are in demand in the country so they are more practice-based and aligned to occupations,” Gamar said. “We build our programmes to align to real positions and scopes of practice.”
She added that CNA-Q students are trained to be innovative, problem-solvers and technically competent workers who strive to meet Qatar’s evolving economic needs.
Qatar’s economy is developing and expanding in manufacturing, and needs more technicians and technologists to be able to operate in diversified technologies that are available now in industry, Gamar said.
She noted that CNA-Q’s School of Engineering Technology and Industrial Trades ensures the curricula it offers is methodically designed “so that the skills we teach our students meet the labour demands of Qatar’s growing economy.” Since its inception in 2002, CNA-Q has grown to offer 30 diploma and certificate programmes, graduating thousands of students from full-time programmes who have populated the workforce in Qatar or pursued further education.
CNA-Q also has a long-standing track record of internationally-accredited programmes. CTAB is one of eight different accrediting bodies which recognise the exceptional curriculum, faculty, infrastructure and delivery of the College’s applied technology-based programmes.
“The vision and the mission of the college is to ensure that we are offering applied technology-based programmes that align to the needs of Qatar’s evolving labour market,”
Gamar said.