UAE | Education

Women's college expands horizons

Two new courses planned to prepare Emirati workforce for changing job market.

  • By Rania Moussly, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 22:37 June 20, 2009
  • Gulf News

Dubai: Dubai Women's College (DWC) is set to launch its latest bachelor's programmes in September, designed to bridge a gap in the market among the Emirati workforce.

The institution will begin running two one-of-a-kind programmes in the fields of Tourism and Event Management and Corporate Communications. It aims at turning out trained national graduates equipped to stimulate the growth of the UAE's economy.

"DWC is always trying to start new programmes as we see the need in the community. Education is one of those things that is always changing," said Dr Howard Reed, director of DWC.

"Content gets stale and new industries come on board, so it is critical you keep your programmes fresh and relevant. It's a process that any good educational institute should be doing all the time," he said.

Dr Monica Gallant, chair of the business department at DWC, said the new Tourism and Event Management programme is an evolution of a previous programme called Travel and Tourism.

"We've done some analysis of the market place and found there is a real need for event planning in Dubai particularly and in the UAE as a whole."

Last year, DWC gained information from employers and surveyed students about their potential interests in this field.

"We got a lot of positive feedback from everyone. So we've developed a curriculum based on the best practices in the world," said Gallant

With 19 students already signed up for the course due to start later this year, the programme is only open to Emirati females from any of the Higher Colleges of Technology campuses. However, "if we have space we would consider taking on men", said Gallant

According to Gallant, graduates of this field have a greater potential of moving into management positions. She said some of the jobs open to graduates of this programme include work at the Dubai World Trade Centre, helping to organise conferences and exhibitions and wedding planning, as well as work in the tourism sector alongside the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

"They [DTCM] have a great demand for Emirati employees who are well versed in this field and can take on public relations roles in their department to help promote the country and the city," she said.

Speaking of the Corporate Communications programme, Dr Hanan Hairab, chair of the department of Applied Communications, said the initiative to launch the new programme came from industry needs.

"You don't find many nationals working in the industry of corporate communications. So there is a big demand and a big need," said Hairab. She said most people do not understand the terms "corporate communications" or "public relations" and in order for candidates of the programme to excel they must have equally strong English and Arabic language skills upon which they will be assessed.

Anniversary: 20 years of excellence

Dubai Women's College (DWC) recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and has released 4,000 working female graduates into the Emirati workforce. Since its inception in 1989, DWC has succeeded in "creating a new generation of Emiratis", said Dr Howard Reed, director of DWC.

This comes in line with the vision of Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the HCT, for the path of education in the UAE.

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