The Sharjah Men's College of the Higher Colleges of Technology will offer 30 evening courses to help professionals and the others to enhance their skills, according to a senior college official.

Ian Greaves, Supervisor Continuing Education at the SMC, said: "The SMC, which earlier provided education only to UAE national students, has now decided to open its doors to all members of the community including expatriates by offering them various evening short and long term certificate courses to upgrade their skills."

He said the Continuing Education Centre at the SMC will formally start functioning in the beginning of the new academic year this month,

He said: "We are ready to launch our first course of the year in web designing on September 16 to enable individuals to gain skills of designing their own web pages."

Greaves said though the college offers free education to national students, people interested in evening courses will have to pay fees. He made it clear that it is not a money making project – its main objective is community service.

Around 30 courses covering various fields including Information Technology, management, administration, leisure and tourism industry, health sciences, first aid, radio transmission and language skills will be offered in addition to customised courses to meet any particular demand of both public and private sector companies.

The centre will also offer its services to small business houses to solve their problems and detect fraud in the companies.

The Sharjah Men's College also launched new courses including its first bachelor's degree programme in E-Commerce. Other new programmes are Certificate and Diploma courses in Graphics and Computer Network Technology.

The college is also preparing to launch some other courses in Product Design, Heritage and Tourism Management, Engineering Management and Business Administration during 2002 and 2003.

The college offers Certificate courses in Financial Services and Banking, General Business, Construction Technology, Electro-Technology and Computer Information Processing.
Its offers diploma courses in Applied Business, Financial Services and Banking, Construction Technology, Electronics Technology, Mechatronics Technology and Computer Information Processing.

The college also offers higher diploma courses in Business Administration, Financial Services and Banking, Applied Electronics and Computer Systems and Business Information Technology.