The UQU Vice Presidency for Educational Affairs launched the Professional Supervision Initiative within the workshop, “The Outputs of Umm Al-Qura University: Between Reality and Aspirations”, held the day before yesterday at King Saud Hall in Al-Abdiyyah. The event marks the acceleration of the university's steps towards supporting the human resources development program emanating from the Saudi Vision 2030. It also indicates how the university keeps pace with professional developments via qualification and training programs synchronized with the academic stage. These advancements will be achieved by signing contracts with government agencies and a number of companies in the private sector.

The Vice President for Educational Affairs, Dr. Amer Al-Zaidi, stressed that the university has started to sign a number of agreements to reserve permanent seats for the professional supervision in the different professional fields required in the business sector. He said the initiative will start to be implemented by the beginning of the coming year, in order to invest in the knowledge capacity of the student and improve his employability through his professional supervisor or any other means.

Dr. Al-Zaidi explained that the program contributes greatly to keeping pace with the steady acceleration of professional development by reducing the student's educational career by one year, which used to be dedicated to courses preparing the student for the labor market, by applying what has been studied in the work environment. "This will lead to reducing the costs of qualifying university graduates and increasing the employment rate of the university students during the first six months after their graduation," he expounded.

He continued to explain that the initiative targets the university students in the second year of the undergraduate phase, according to specific nomination parameters that include: obtaining a high GPA, and passing all courses the first time. He said the supervision period continues until the student's graduation from the university. During this period, he will meet his professional supervisor regularly and participate in work tasks and summer training to be prepared to engage in the work environment on the first day after his graduation.

Finally, he praised the support of the UQU President, Prof. Moaddi bin Muhammad Aal Madh-hab, and the attention he paid to boosting the outputs of the university as well as developing the students' skills and enabling them to compete globally, in line with the plans of the Ministry of Education and the objectives of the human capacities development program.

During the initiative's launching program, three agreements were signed between the College of Computer and Information Systems and a number of private sector companies with regard to boosting professional supervision objectives and achieving the knowledge goals necessary to qualify students professionally in line with the university's plans and aspirations.

The agreements were signed, on the part of the university, by the Dean of the College of Computer and Information Systems, Dr. Saud Al-Otaibi. The first agreement was with the Experts Vision Consulting Company, represented by Dr. Bassim Zafar. The second one was with the Integrated Technology Solutions Company, represented by Mr. Adnan Shafi, while the third agreement was with the Global Innovation Technology Company, represented by Eng. Muhammad Al-Khulaidi. Some parties who participated in the launching ceremony provided initiatives to train the university students. These parties included: the Ministry of National Guard (western sector), the Microsoft Company, and Mobily company. Details in this regard will be announced later.