Walking the Talk: QCDC Builds on Success of Career Guidance Stakeholders Platform

Almost a year has passed since Qatar Career Development Center (QCDC) wrapped up the latest edition of its Career Guidance Stakeholders Platform, complete with a set of strategic recommendations aimed at embedding career guidance within Qatar’s socio-economic culture.

Throughout the course of the 2016-2017 academic year, a series of post platform meetings were held with career guidance stakeholders that continued to leverage the platform’s momentum, build on its findings and results, and pave the way for the event’s next edition, planned for the spring of 2018.

Most of the platform’s strategic recommendations have been implemented, laying the foundations for a new integrated career guidance system within the framework of Qatar’s Education and Training Sector Strategy 2017-2022.

The new system rests on a joint action plan designed to strengthen collaboration between various career guidance stakeholders in Qatar. These include the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, Qatar Foundation (QF), and QF partner universities, among other academic institutions and key stakeholders.

QCDC took concrete steps to put the joint action plan into motion along three axes: ensuring the future Qatari workforce has access to professional development through qualified academic and career counselors in Qatar; implementing a coordinated program across universities and colleges to promote a culture of counseling and career guidance among students; and making use of Qatar’s advanced IT infrastructure to create and develop an electronic system for career guidance.

Along the first axis, QCDC, in partnership the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the U.S. Embassy in Doha, held a series of training programs for public and private school counselors. The training programs were followed by a series of meetings with representatives from QF and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to discuss the alignment of international career guidance practices with Qatari reality, and to provide insights into the review process of the Education and Training Sector Strategy 2017-2022.

The meetings culminated in a roadmap for the implementation of projects in line with the Education and Training Sector Strategy, as well as the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The MoU focuses on student and career counselor development in addition to the promotion of stakeholder engagement and research efforts.

Along the second axis, QF and QCDC have planned collaboration frameworks to meet the needs of QF’s Pre-University Education (PUE) entities and its partner universities.

The first collaboration framework with PUE is designed to meet the career guidance needs of students across QF academies and to contribute to the implementation of a two-tier Community Transition Program (CTP). The CTP pilot project by The Learning Centre (TLC) and Awsaj Academy caters for students with no access to Awsaj Academy’s general curriculum and aims at preparing youth to join the professional world.

The collaboration framework with QF partner universities, on the other hand, contributed to the design of a post-graduation career-options model that was presented to QF graduates during the last Convocation 2017 ceremony. The model aims to provide a fully-fledged roadmap tailored to the career related needs of alumni from QF universities to help bridge the gap between graduates and employers.

Along the third and final axis, QCDC is planning a strategic partnership with a multinational software corporation and other government agencies to integrate customized and need-based IT solutions into the national career guidance framework. The solutions build on the QCDC-Kuder Career Planning System and the completion of the CATC Project.

QCDC, a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), continuously reviews and introduces necessary structural changes to keep its Career Guidance Stakeholders Engagement Platform relevant and up to date. The latest structural changes involve a shift in focus from engaging individuals to engaging institutions in Qatar and the GCC region.

The 2016 edition of the Career Guidance Stakeholders Engagement Platform, a first event of its kind in Qatar, brought together more than 150 experts to discuss efforts to advance and support career guidance as a powerful means for personal, social, educational, and economic success of young Qataris, and Qatari society in general.

This support is instrumental to the success of Qatar’s Education and Training Sector Strategy and the accomplishment of the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV2030), particularly the Human Development Pillar.

The input received from stakeholders since then has been compiled and interpreted to address specific needs in terms of training and professional development for career practitioners today and in the near future. The findings were also assessed to better plan for the next platform scheduled to take place in 2018.