UDST President Dr. Salem Al Naemi and other officials listen to a presentation during the Skills Day event.
Doha: The University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST) yesterday held its ‘Skills Day’ event for students to showcase prospective groundbreaking projects and get hands-on practical experience as they prepare for the real world.
The event offered more than 50 competitions and activities around campus — in Engineering Technology, Computing and Information Technology, Health Sciences, Business Management, and Academics.
Many interactive educational and fun activities and competitions such as gear train designing challenge, welding, leak testing in the pipeline, network design and cabling, renewable energy and sustainability activities, testing technician safety, engaging in health scenarios and skills stations were held as part of the event. Others include cyber security challenges, the internet of things, programming and problem-solving, robots’ races, green screen digital communication, and egg drop stem challenge.
In a statement, UDST President Dr. Salem Al Naemi said, “Skills Day is all about the approach that UDST undertakes to reveal the importance of applied education.
The way we support our students and empower them to be capable of using the latest technologies and have the right skills to answer the labour market’s needs.
This event is an opportunity to demonstrate what our students have learned throughout their educational journey at the university and how they use their skills and hands-on competencies to innovate and harness technology to serve the community better.”
Dr. Al Naemi lauded UDST partners for supporting Skills Day and for believing in the importance of advancing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Qatar, adding that “UDST has always relied on industry leaders to develop its programs and work on bridging the gap between Academia and Industry.”
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event, Dr. Athar Elhakim, Senior Lecturer in the Pharmacy Technology programme, College of Health Sciences at UDST, said the students have been fully engaged with the event because they get to experience what it is like working with other health care professionals.
“It is very beneficial for our students as they get this interprofessional exposure in a fun, competitive way with their peers,” Dr. Athar said.
“We have simulation labs regularly throughout their programmes, so this is just another example of how students are exposed to experiential learning. Overall, the students are enjoying it. It’s beneficial because it helps them build their communication and leadership skills and learn how to work with other professionals that they may encounter when they work in the hospital or a health care setting,” she added.
As part of Skills Day, UDST also partnered with local high schools to allow them to witness the competitions and try a skill. The experience familiarises them with STEM subjects and promotes the school’s core value of applied and technical knowledge. Students were also placed in groups to solve real-life scenarios and participate in business simulations, electrical and mechanical engineering challenges, energy and sustainability, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, programming, healthcare, communication contests and debates.
The “Skills Competition” winners will be announced in a special ceremony today and will be awarded medals and recognition certificates.
