Secretary-General of Qatar National Commission for Education Culture and Science, Dr Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti (left), and President of College of North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q), Dr Ken MacLeod, exchanging documents after signing the deal yesterday. (Pic: Sa
DOHA: Aimed at equipping Qatari youth to meet the needs of the job market here, College of the North Atlantic - Qatar (CNA-Q) and the Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science (QNCECS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding yesterday.
Both organisations will work together on a number of projects and activities that will further the outreach, research, advocacy, and programming of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Sustainable Development in Qatar. The MoU was signed by Dr Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti, Secretary General of the QNCECS, and Dr Ken MacLeod, President of CNA-Q.
As the first accomplishment of the partnership, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has awarded CNA-Q a prestigious Unesco Chair on TVET and Sustainable Development.
Unesco Chairs Programme aims to promote international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work. Today, the programme involves over 700 institutions in 128 countries.
The Unesco Chair here will conduct extensive local and regional labour market policy research. Effective strategies will be produced based on these studies, to ensure that all Qatari graduates are appropriately skilled to meet the needs of the labour market.
“We have an action oriented plan for the next four years. It will include policy oriented research publication, data and research pooling and various conferences that will bring in experts and policy makers of particular interest from around the world. We aim to help develop skills in the graduates here to match the needs of the labour market,” Dr Rupert Maclean told The Peninsula.
Dr Maclean has been appointed the Unesco Chair holder by Unesco Headquarters in Paris. He has had a long and esteemed career as a TVET researcher and author, and has been a member of the Unesco community for two decades, working in various Unesco offices. The Chair will be funded by CNA-Q and industry partners for an initial period of four years.
The role of the Chair is to ensure that Unesco priority areas are applied in Qatar and the GCC.
