Major choices

New courses at ADWC offer better job opportunities for women

The Abu Dhabi Women's College (ADWC) has registered a remarkable growth in student enrolment from 62 students in 1988 to 2,300 this year. Consider another statistics: the number of students who graduated this year has almost doubled - from 292 last year to 460 this year.

Despite the opening of new colleges like Zayed University, the ADWC continues to attract national girls (930 students enrolled this year) because of their 15-year-old proven track-record and the close link between their courses and the job market.

"It's well-established with companies in the UAE that girls graduating from this college have better opportunities in the job market and are highly recommended," exclaims Safeya Al Hameli, a second- year student with financial services and banking, citing her reason for joining this college.

While Noora Al Jarwan, an ADWC third-year accounting student, was attracted by the fact that the majors offered at this college matched the job market needs. In an interview with Gulf News, Nicholas Gara, director, ADWC, speaks about the trend in choice of careers for national girls and how the college is trying to meet it with the new courses.

Kavitha S. Daniel: What's the demand of the job market today?
Nicholas Gara: The traditional employers are the oil companies (the largest), the utilities and the government. That trend still continues but the growth areas are in banking, education, medical sector and the private sector, where women increasingly find employment in small business (media, transport, hospitality and trading companies).

However, IT and IT related subjects are also being increasingly favoured by the girls. The trend in choice of careers for national women over the last decade seems to have veered towards IT from the traditional business subjects.

Indeed, over the last decade, the pendulum has shifted to an accent on IT, nearly 53 per cent of the students are enrolled in this subject at Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT). Earlier, students used to gravitate towards business related courses.

Has the college introduced any new courses keeping the job market in mind?
In the last two years the college had introduced eight new courses which look at opportunities, among others, in IT and its related areas such as "computer networking" and "e-commerce".

In the future too, new programmes considered by ADWC will be related to IT such as software engineering, graphics CAD and Contd Ed (International Computer Driving Licence).

What about your new degree programmes?
New degree courses have been introduced in English for young learners, communication technology, and the two most recent ones are linked to the management of data (on computer) for "health management" (information management of health issues like coding of diseases, health insurance, etc) and secondly, "information management" (management of data in insurance, banks etc).

These two new degree programmes were introduced this year based on market research and study. Yet, it's important to note that the numbers in health science, education and particularly CommTech (media) are also growing.

CommTech was not a popular course until recently because parents did not want their children to join fields like TV or public relations. Today, it's the most sought-after course in your campus.

CommTech got popular with each progressive year as students and parents witness what the graduates from this programme have achieved. Their work is getting international recognition at film festivals in Paris, Belgium, San Francisco and they have been acclaimed locally too.

The programme allows them not just to be creative, but it also leads to employment and exciting career choices. Students in this programme have joined Abu Dhabi TV, advertising agencies, information departments and research institutions, among others.

Families are recognising the influence of the media and how important it is to have UAE nationals in key positions within that industry.

Is there a plan to start a film course?
We have completed a feasibility study which looks at the possibility of starting a degree film production programme. We are taking a good look at what could be involved since we do have a limited budget. Ideally, we would like to enter into a joint venture with some company to start this programme.