Doha: Over the past five years, Qatar Career Development Center (QCDC), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), has taken steady strides in its journey to integrate neurodiverse persons in the workplace and support students with learning challenges to embark on their career journeys.
This has been achieved through a series of school-based programmes and career integration initiatives, driven by stakeholder engagement and community awareness campaigns, to further advance QCDC’s ultimate goal of building a fully integrated and inclusive career guidance ecosystem in Qatar.
Abdulla Al Mansoori, Director, QCDC, said, “QCDC is committed to empowering all segments of society to ultimately make a meaningful contribution to the advancement of the Qatar National Vision 2030. We realise the potential of equipping neurodiverse individuals and students with learning difficulties and the impact that such actions have on advancing our nation’s economic and social development.”
This year QCDC took major efforts with two members of QF, Awsaj Academy and The Learning Center, integrating QCDC’s Career Readiness Programme to empower class curriculum.
The move was driven by the success of QCDC’s Career Readiness Programme, which was initiated in 2017 in collaboration with Awsaj Academy, and features cross-structural interventions and project-based learning activities. The programme was launched in the 2018/2019 academic year and has benefitted students with mild to moderate learning challenges to date.
The mother of a participating student at Awsaj Academy said, “I am pleased with my daughter’s participation in this practical training programme, which introduces students to the professional life beyond the school framework and equips them with the basic skills required to engage in a real career after graduation.”
Since its official integration in the curriculum, the program qualifies students for additional school credits and a special needs certificate upon graduation from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. It also offers students workshops, motivational talks, field trips, volunteering and social responsibility projects among other activities that enhance their access to internship opportunities and help them apply the employability skills they acquire.
“Building inclusive career development practices is an integrated process that begins at schools with our Career Readiness Program and extends to the workplace with QCDC’s various other initiatives while maintaining engagement on the institutional, stakeholder and community levels,” Al Mansoori said.
QCDC sought to further engage stakeholders through hosting the Inclusive Employment Stakeholders Meetings, which complements the efforts exerted in the past years in the Career Readiness Program and offers key stakeholders and relevant experts in Qatar an opportunity to discuss the creation of inclusive classrooms and workplaces.
Consultants taking part in the Inclusive Employment Stakeholders Meetings, Dr. Stephen Shore, Professor of Special Education at Adelphi University, and Dr. Robert Naseef, Psychologist and Autism Expert, addressed the value and components of the inclusive employment program for neurodiverse individuals by collaborating with key stakeholders across various industries.
On the workplace front, QCDC recently launched its Supported Employment Program for People with Disabilities, to promote meaningful and successful employment for individuals in the autism spectrum. Additionally, and as part of its latest awareness campaign to celebrate neurodiversity and support people with special abilities, QCDC launched its Inclusive Internship Days initiative, which aims to build across QF centers, divisions, and functions an inclusive employment culture, train the departments to onboard and interact with people with disabilities, and support the transition of QF students with learning challenges from education to employment through internship opportunities.
Timed with the initiative’s launch, QCDC offered the QF community and the public an introductory webinar titled “101: Creating Inclusive Internship Experiences”, which delved into the basics around autism and the practical considerations for creating an inclusive workplace culture.
It was followed by another webinar on the “Importance of Parents’ Advocacy in Promoting Inclusion”, presented by three Qatari mothers, who are the founders of the Autism Parents platform, a community platform for families of people in the autism spectrum. To advance its community level efforts, QCDC is keen on organizing, and taking part in, awareness raising activities.
