UDST President Dr. Salem Al Naemi
The University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST), the first national applied university in Qatar, is determined to meet industry challenges by ensuring that students are provided with the best and latest skills to prepare them for the rigours of the labour market, UDST President Dr. Salem Al Naemi has said.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a seminar entitled “A Brighter TVET Future for Qatar: Addressing Current Challenges,” Dr. Al Naemi said the institution wants to create a problem-solving environment to boost entrepreneurship among graduates.
“As an applied education university, our core business is to have a system between us, the government, industries, and mainly our students to create that ecosystem, to provide jobs for them in the future.
“First, we must protect the future with all the skills required for our students. We have to incorporate them into our programmes and work closely with the industry. We have to make sure that not only that we provide our program, but we make sure that the students remain hands-on during the four years that they are with us. So when they graduate, they will be the answer in the work environment,” Dr. Al Naemi said.
“We are also trying to promote research-oriented problem-solving to create opportunities for our students and faculty. Besides that, we want to create a graduate employer. We want to build in them the mindset of not only working for someone, but they could work independently. We have the incubator, and we are working with others to see how we could commercialize the idea so it can become an opportunity for them,” he added.
Dr. Al Naemi also noted that UDST works closely with the Ministry of Labour and other relevant industry partners to discuss plans and challenges.
He also stated that the university had seen significant progress in student enrolment, with around 6,100 students, while many are still on the waiting list.
“We have tripled over two years, and more people are on the waiting list than we can take because we cannot just rapidly grow. So we are expecting even more students to come to us. But we want to ensure that we have the right infrastructure to provide a quality education for everyone.”
Meanwhile, the UDST seminar was attended by Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Prof. Ibrahim Bin Saleh Al Naimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and UDST’s Board Member; Dr. Mohammed Yousef Al Mulla, MD & CEO, Qatar Petrochemical Co, and Vice Chairman, UDST’s Board of Trustees; Dr. Salem Al Naemi, President of UDST; and other dignitaries.
The seminar shed light on UDST’s efforts alongside the ministries and all partners from the private and public sectors to raise awareness about the importance of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
A panel discussion noted that according to Unesco’s two Global Education Monitoring reports (2016 and 2020), Qatar is among the lowest countries in technical secondary school enrolment, with less than 1% of secondary school students enrolled in vocational schools. The sector is suffering from a low enrolment rate of students, especially at the secondary level, a lack of clarity of the value of TVET by students and parents, and a lack of vocational and practical topics across the curriculums in primary and preparatory schools. If they exist, they are rarely enacted.
