Life-learning Initiative Advances to Next Stage
2012-03-29
A one-day symposium was held at QU on March 20 to review the achievements and challenges of Stage I of the QU Initiative for Lifelong Learning (QUILL) Project, and discuss the direction of Stage 2.
QUILL is a recently-launched initiative under the Training Managers’ Forum (TMF) led by QU Continuing Education Office. The Forum engages stakeholders across sectors in Qatar in dialogue, information-sharing and decision-making on strategies for developing skills and competencies relevant to the needs of the labor market. It is aimed at supporting the development of a well-educated, well-trained and efficient workforce, in alignment with the objectives of Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030 and the Qatar National Development Strategy (QNDS) 2011-2016.
The symposium drew the participation of training managers and HR development specialists from across sectors in Qatar, with Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Director of the Thunderbird School of Global Management Stephane Sinimale flying in from Geneva to present at the event.
The day’s program was opened with a welcome speech by Continuing Education Office Director Dr Taj Kardaman, who cast light on the significance and role of the TMF and the QUILL project. He also stressed that the Office is very much dedicated to effective delivery of the vision of the forum and its associated projects. “As a result, effort has been invested in developing more collaborative relationships with a large number of HR and training managers in Qatar for the purpose of actively engaging them in the processes involved”, he said.
QUILL Project Director, Penny Barratt delivered a presentation in which she shared the results of a recent HR Survey and introduced the current survey on Employability Skills, which is available on the Project’s new website. She ended with the launch of the website http://quill.edu.qa/ which was developed by the Project Task Group with the help of Section Head QU Portal & Web Technologies Asad Nafees.
Presentations were made by Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning HR Department Training Expert DR Mohammad Nizami on “Linking Career Training with the Career Path”, and RasGas Head of Corporate Training Peter Barrett and Head of Workforce Planning Marc Roos on “Building Competency Based Training Development for an Energy Company” and “Nationalisation in RasGas: An Integrated Long Term Process” respectively. The final presentation “Managing Performance using the Flow Assessment” delivered by Stephane Sinimale discussed the new FLOW concept.
In the late morning session, symposium participants joined workshops focusing on HR training, manpower planning, and developing employee engagement. The day’s program concluded with feedback sessions on the workshops.
Commenting on the event, Dr Kardaman, said: “The objective of these forums is to engage HR and training managers in the development of targeted sustainable programs that meet the standards of workforce quality envisioned in the QNV and QNDS. Our Office is very much pleased to partner with key organizations in Qatar and to provide their training managers with valuable opportunities to network, collaborate and learn from each other in order to translate the human development dimension of Qatar’s Vision and Strategy into actual training and development programs based on specific needs of each sector”.
QUILL Project Director Penny Barratt said: “The past four months working on the project have been extremely exciting and interesting especially interacting with stakeholders who have readily engaged in the task groups and shared their own vision and direction in developing strategies to support quality Qatarization. The focus of Stage 1 has been on employability skills as well as HR roles and responsibilities in organizations. We hope the direction of Stage 2 will be to address other sector-specific training needs as well as the need for sustainable national programs of soft/employability skills and HR training which can be rolled out across Qatar. This is an ambitious idea, but one we would like to take forward with the backing and support of QU, the Supreme Education Council (SEC), Ministry of Labour and other key ministries in the State of Qatar”.
The symposium drew the participation of training managers and HR development specialists from across sectors in Qatar, with Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Director of the Thunderbird School of Global Management Stephane Sinimale flying in from Geneva to present at the event.
The day’s program was opened with a welcome speech by Continuing Education Office Director Dr Taj Kardaman, who cast light on the significance and role of the TMF and the QUILL project. He also stressed that the Office is very much dedicated to effective delivery of the vision of the forum and its associated projects. “As a result, effort has been invested in developing more collaborative relationships with a large number of HR and training managers in Qatar for the purpose of actively engaging them in the processes involved”, he said.
QUILL Project Director, Penny Barratt delivered a presentation in which she shared the results of a recent HR Survey and introduced the current survey on Employability Skills, which is available on the Project’s new website. She ended with the launch of the website http://quill.edu.qa/ which was developed by the Project Task Group with the help of Section Head QU Portal & Web Technologies Asad Nafees.
Presentations were made by Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning HR Department Training Expert DR Mohammad Nizami on “Linking Career Training with the Career Path”, and RasGas Head of Corporate Training Peter Barrett and Head of Workforce Planning Marc Roos on “Building Competency Based Training Development for an Energy Company” and “Nationalisation in RasGas: An Integrated Long Term Process” respectively. The final presentation “Managing Performance using the Flow Assessment” delivered by Stephane Sinimale discussed the new FLOW concept.
In the late morning session, symposium participants joined workshops focusing on HR training, manpower planning, and developing employee engagement. The day’s program concluded with feedback sessions on the workshops.
Commenting on the event, Dr Kardaman, said: “The objective of these forums is to engage HR and training managers in the development of targeted sustainable programs that meet the standards of workforce quality envisioned in the QNV and QNDS. Our Office is very much pleased to partner with key organizations in Qatar and to provide their training managers with valuable opportunities to network, collaborate and learn from each other in order to translate the human development dimension of Qatar’s Vision and Strategy into actual training and development programs based on specific needs of each sector”.
QUILL Project Director Penny Barratt said: “The past four months working on the project have been extremely exciting and interesting especially interacting with stakeholders who have readily engaged in the task groups and shared their own vision and direction in developing strategies to support quality Qatarization. The focus of Stage 1 has been on employability skills as well as HR roles and responsibilities in organizations. We hope the direction of Stage 2 will be to address other sector-specific training needs as well as the need for sustainable national programs of soft/employability skills and HR training which can be rolled out across Qatar. This is an ambitious idea, but one we would like to take forward with the backing and support of QU, the Supreme Education Council (SEC), Ministry of Labour and other key ministries in the State of Qatar”.