His Excellency Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail, the President of Umm Al-Qura University, yesterday launched a Training of Trainers (TOT) program, organized by the Deanship of Development and Quality, for a number of professors from different disciplines, to leverage their academic expertise, provide them with a high professional qualification, and prepare them for the field of training both inside or outside the university. The launching of the TOT program took place in the presence of His Excellency the Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Hani Ghazi.

In his speech to the trainees, the President of Umm Al-Qura University, Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail, noted that Umm Al-Qura University has been and is still rich in academically qualified human resources in all fields and disciplines, and have a myriad of academic leaders who are able to enrich the field of applied training. He added that the UQU administration will spare no effort to support and implement the training programs to hone the trainees' training skills and help them benefit from the training techniques and approaches.

Moreover, the UQU Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Hani Ghazi, stressed that these training programs aim to qualify highly trained and capable trainers to ensure the best outputs that will achieve the university's strategic objective. He also pointed out that these programs target the UQU academic staff members to build a large team of qualified trainers who can significantly contribute to the Saudi community and its development.

On his part, the Vice Dean of Academic Development and Quality for Training, Dr. Sa`id Kabrah, explained that the TOT Program aims to clarify the main differences between teaching and training in various fields, and to qualify the trainees (academic staff members) in a practical way that enables them to develop training packages according to a specific and academic methodology. He added that the deanship's training programs are in line with a development methodology that aims in achieving total quality in all educational outputs.