INJAZ QATAR, in partnership with the French Embassy in Qatar, and sponsored by Thales, is gearing up to launch the first-ever Job Champions work-readiness competition in the country in March 2018. The initiative promises to bring educators, students, parents and employers a fresh perspective on career-training programmes for university students.

The competition is open to all university students currently studying one of the business and engineering majors such as Marketing, Accounting, Finance, Management, HR and IT. Through a four-module programme spanning several weeks, selected students will learn and practise the whole range of skills they will need to take up positions in the private or public sector, as soon as they leave university.

Sheikha Hanadi bint Nasser Al Thani, Chairperson of INJAZ Qatar explained, “In addition to academic qualifications, students need to be ‘work ready’ – in other words, they need interpersonal skills, behavioral adaptability and a positive attitude to adapt and succeed. Job Champions equips graduates with such skills. The competition meets the country’s increasing demand for youth education, which is a crucial element of human development, one of the pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030.”

The first two modules will be a learning process, and will include job shadowing alongside professional mentoring at Thales in Qatar. This will be in addition to classroom sessions, workshops and psychometric testing. These two modules will equip each participant with the practical skills they need to enter the workplace immediately upon graduation.

Module 3 is a business competition that will give groups of students an opportunity to combine their academic learning with the skills they acquired in modules 1 and 2, to come up with a solution to a real-life problem at Thales. The winning team will go on to the fourth module, which is a grand prize – an all-expenses paid, three-week internship with Thales in France.

With the application process almost over, 24 students have been shortlisted to form groups, with each group consisting of students from a variety of majors. The first two modules will take place in March and the competition module will be held in April. The three-week internship in France is scheduled for July to coincide with universities’ summer break.

The French Embassy in Qatar, which is collaborating with INJAZ Qatar for the event, is encouraging university students to make use of this opportunity to be mentored by a top-rated company such as Thales.

Speaking at a press conference, H.E. Mr Eric Chevallier said: “The Job Champions of INJAZ Qatar in partnership with the Embassy of France and the French company Thales, is the first of its kind. This initiative aims at reinforcing the participation of French companies to Qatar’s knowledge-based economy and capacity building, in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030. In short, university students go through a series of workshops and team business challenges whereby the winning team will go to an internship in France, fully paid by Thales, in the departments of Thales the students are interested in. This is a perfect example of what can be achieved when non-governmental and private entities engage together to prepare students for work readiness. The French Embassy in Qatar is proud to have contributed to the implementation of this initiative. We will also participate to the conclusion of the competition by announcing the winning group during an Awards Ceremony in April. I hope that this first edition that focuses on engineering, computer, business and economics will be followed by many others involving French companies of different sectors.”

With an increase in demand for streamlined and comprehensive training in Qatar’s business and corporate sectors, INJAZ’s Job Champions Competition promises to provide outstanding mentoring opportunities in an inspirational, exciting and interactive environment.

As the competition sponsor, Thales has worked hard to ensure that on-the-job mentoring by Thales staff will provide students with as realistic an experience as possible, giving them a clear idea of what it takes to work and succeed in a corporate environment today.

Frederic Sallet, Managing Director of Thales in Qatar said, “It is an honour to partner with INJAZ Qatar to empower young Qatari talents to learn more about infrastructure development as well as other sectors. At Thales, we work extensively with our partners in Qatar, including Qatar armed forces, Hamad International Airport authorities, Qatar Rail, Qatar Airways and other key stakeholders, to provide advanced solutions and technologies. By training the next generation of Qatari talents, we want to share our insights and knowledge to enable these young men and women to gain a holistic understanding of the industry, in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030.”

All image courtesy of INJAZ Qatar

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