The Importance of Professional Certificates for University Students to Prepare them for the Labor Market

Consensus on the
Importance of Employability Skills and including them in courses…

Prof. Hamzah:

The Importance of
Professional Certificates for University Students to Prepare them for the Labor
Market

Refining Students’
Skills and Enabling them to Adapt to Independent Learning Methods

The President of the University
of Bahrain (UOB), Prof. Riyad Yousif Hamzah, stressed the importance of
professional certificates offered by the University to students to prepare them
for the labor market and increase their employment opportunities, referring to
the programs that shall refine students’ skills and encourage entrepreneurship,
as it is one of the most important tributaries of business now and in the
future.

This came during the opening
session of the International Conference on Foundation Programs organized by the
English Language Center at the UOB through visual communication technology on
Tuesday (10 November 2020) and for a period of three days.  

The opening session was moderated
by Mr. Cameron Mirza and was attended by the President of UOB, along with:
Managing Director and CEO of Kuwait Finance House Abdul Hakeem Al-Khayyat,
Director of Education and Training Development at the Economic Development
Board Jeff Hancock, Director of Business Development and the Middle East
Program for Educational Services Simon Peters, Director of Human Resources at
Zain Bahrain Dana Bukhamas, and Head of Corporate Communications at National
Bank of Bahrain Hisham Abu Alfateh.

The conference discussed 42
research papers and reviewed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the higher
education and employment sector and the promotion of higher education goals
within the 2030 Economic Vision.

The conference was held for the
third time with the title of: “Expanding the Scope of Learning in Higher
Education Outside Class: Integrating Life and Employability Skills” and was
sponsored by the President of UOB, Prof. Riyad Yousif Hamzah.

Prof. Riyad Hamzah discussed the
recent scientific and specialized trends, graduate and undergraduate programs
related to artificial intelligence, big data, digital marketing,
entrepreneurship, cloud computing, network security, and more. Also, he pointed
out that UOB is in the final stage of moving its entire infrastructure and
applications into Amazon’s cloud, which will help in accelerating the digital
transformation process.

Furthermore, the President of the
University praised the conference and its topics that support sustainable
development goals of the United Nations Development Program in terms of quality
of education, with a focus on providing technical and professional skills for
employment and entrepreneurship, noting the importance of “working to refine
students’ skills and enabling them to adapt to independent learning methods to
ensure their career success in the future. “

The International Conference on
Foundation Programs is organized by the University’s English Language Center and
it examines the most vital issues affecting the future of higher education in
the period from 10 to 12 of this November.

The conference was held for the
third time with the title of: “Expanding the Scope of Learning in Higher
Education Outside Class: Integrating Life and Employability Skills” (ILES) and
was sponsored by the President of UOB, Prof. Riyad Yousif Hamzah.

The participants in the opening
session unanimously agreed on the centrality of job skills and the need to
include them in academic programs, noting, in this context, the need to
strengthen teaching methods in crises in line with the sustainable development
goals.

Also, they stressed the need to
adapt legislation and review it to create inventive methods of higher
education, and to launch initiatives to support university students, develop
their skills, and teach them modern technology, which is now running many
processes in various sectors.

Moreover, Dr. Ghada Ahmed Jassim,
Director of the English Language Center at UOB stated: “Due to the
distinguished response from participants in submitting research papers and
presentations to this innovative electronic conference, it has been decided to
extend the session from two days to three days, as one of the highlights of the
conference will be its launch with four main speakers, in addition to the
opening session accompanied by an interactive panel debate.”

Also, she pointed out that
“the electronic conference aims to review the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic
on the higher education and employment sector, and to promote higher education
goals within Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030,” noting that the event
“supports the sustainable development goals of the United Nations
Development Program (Goal 4) on quality education, with a focus on providing
technical and professional skills for employment and entrepreneurship, and
contributing to refine students’ skills and enabling them to adapt to
independent learning methods to ensure their career success in the future, as the
conference seeks to strengthen teaching methods in crises in line with the
sustainable development goals.

Furthermore, the CEO Kuwait Finance
House Abdul Hakeem Al-Khayyat recommended enhancing communication to bridge the
gap between higher education and the labor market, noting the importance of
developing a strategy to integrate organizational behavior and leadership
skills in academic programs to enhance future job opportunities in line with
Bahrain’s 2030 Vision.

For her part, Dana Bukhamas
emphasized the importance and necessity of investing in building the
capabilities and energies of the youth, along with developing academic
programs.

The Director of Language Research
and Education at Cambridge University Press, Ben Knight, was the first speaker
and he gave a presentation entitled “How can English language programs improve
students’ employment skills?” followed by five scholarly papers on the
originality of texts in the English learning classes and linking it to employability
skills.

Also, Dr. Paul Robertson and Dr.
Ramon Medriano gave a speech on behalf of the Asian EFL Journal Editorial,
which will publish the research papers presented at the Conference. The
conference concluded on its first day with a speech by Dr. Keith Fulse, who is an
English Language Professor for non-English speakers at the University of
Central Florida.