Dubai: The importance of helping students choose the right career path and universities took centre-stage at the 13th edition of the Gulf Education and Training Exhibition (GETEX).
Education officials, specialists and students stressed the importance of providing students with guidance in the selection of higher education institutions and the majors they will pursue.
GETEX 2013 was inaugurated by Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, on Tuesday and will run until Friday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Shaikh Nahyan said: “The continued success of GETEX reflects the UAE’s important role in the global educational domain, boosted by the steadfast support of the country’s leaders to develop the education sector and create an integrated learning environment to encourage creativity and innovation.”
The UAE student population has expanded by 7 per cent in the last five years, making it the fastest growing private education market with a value of $1.9 billion (Dh6.97 billion). With this growth the increase in the availability of programmes and degrees can cause some students to be lost if they are not provided with the proper information and guidance.
According to the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), Dubai is experiencing an 8 per cent rise in the number of courses on offer at universities.
To keep counsellors up to date with the latest programme offerings in the market, GETEX launched a counselling forum.
“This year we are having the student counselling forum, where we are engaging about 40 student counsellors from 30 different secondary schools. This will allow them [to] network and learn from each other about how to counsel students well. More importantly we are educating them about what is available in the local market,” said Anselm Godinho, GETEX organiser and managing director of the International Conferences and Exhibitions LLC.
Also aware of the need to advise students, the KHDA launched a handbook which will be available as a phone application in order to help students and parents make informed decisions about higher education in Dubai.
“We have seen how universities have grown in terms of programmes and, with all these programmes, it has become eminent for us to have a handbook where students can find the different university programme accreditation, fees, maps and contact information to help them and their parents make choices,” said Dr Abdullah Al Karam, director-general of the KHDA.
Al Karam also stated that the handbook includes the percentage of students employed after graduating from each university, statistics which will further help students make decisions based on how easily a chosen programme will help in their employment.
Peter Davos, founder and president of Carian College Advisers, stated that through his 12 years of experience he had found out that research was a vital tool in helping students,
“Students come to me for guidance, they are very lost and they don’t understand when the deadlines are, which exams they need to take and don’t know where to start. There really is a lack of information here and I advise students to research,” Davos said.
Professor Raed Awamleh, pro-vice-chancellor of Middlesex University in Dubai, also advised students to research stating: “I advise student to start thinking about their major early, [to[ talk to career counsellors if available, attend career days and visit campuses to collect as much information as possible.”
