Shared Scopes

Training Department in conjunction with the CEC, have the following primary functions:

1. To plan, coordinate and deliver professional IT Training Programs and services to staff and faculty internally at QOU.
2. To plan, coordinate and deliver Professional IT Training Programs and services externally to business, industry and governmental organizations. These programs are chosen to meet today's workforce challenges and tomorrow's needs.
3. To develop the Palestinian human resources using modern highly standardized training methods and programs.
4. To enhance the technical and administrative skills of the private and governmental institutions.
5. To provide training programs aimed at developing the Palestinian women sector.
6. To organize technical and administrative training courses for members of the civil society sector.
7. To organize conferences and conduct needs assessment practices to identify areas of development.

Achievements

Training Department is operating in different fields to improve the quality of QOU's employees in cooperation with the Continuing Education Center. The department's achievements can be summarized as follows:

1. IT Academies:
• The department got Microsoft IT Academy on 2005, and renewed it again last year. The academy's benefits are listed in Microsoft website.
• Getting SUN Academic Initiative: Training department got this academy for QOU to be the first Educational Institute that obtained it in Palestine.
• Authorized Prometric Testing Center (APTC): the department is working to be Authorized Prometric Testing Center. The agreement was signed and we got initial approval.
• Oracle Academy: the department got the primary approval to be Oracle Academy, and still waiting to add Palestine in countries' list.
• The department is preparing to get ITIL training partnership with IT entrepreneurs, to be the exclusive reseller of its training programs in IT service management and support in Palestine.
• RedHat Academy: lastly, the department is negotiating with RedHat to get the Academy.
2. ICTC Training Department conducted the following training courses:
• Locally: these courses are conducted in Palestine.
  1. Local community: the department is offering several training courses for local community under the awarded Academies such as:
     Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE)
     • TDD is conducting MCSE course in Ramallah and another one in Gaza.
     • TTD is preparing to conduct a new MCSE course in Ramallah.
       SUN Certified Java Programmer
     • The department announced in the local newspapers a SUN Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) course to be held on 21/02/2007 in Ramallah.
       Oracle Certified Professional (OCP)
     • TDD is conducting an Oracle Developer course in Bethlehem and another course in Salfet.
  2. QOU's HR development: Training and Development Department has a procedure of offering training courses for the University's employees in order to improve their computer and IT skills. Some of the conducted courses are listed below:
     • Microsoft Project Course: This course was given to ICTC employees.
     • Multimedia Design Course: This was given to ICTC and Multimedia Production Center employees.
     • RedHat Linux Workshop: This workshop was given for QOU Lab Technicians in all branches.
     • RedHat Certified Engineer: is under practice in ICTC for its employees.
     • ICDL Certificates: the department nominated one technician from each branch to take ICDL exams, all passed the exams and got ICDL certificates.
• Internationally: these courses are conducted outside Palestine.
  1. RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE) Course: the department nominated one of the Networking and Support Department's engineers to participate in RHCE course in Dubai.
  2. E-learning Courses Development: TTD also nominated two employees to participate in an E-learning course in Jordan; one from ICTC and the other from Ramallah Educational Region.
3. Workshops, Exhibitions and Conferences: Training Department has coordinated the following:
   • Information and Communication Technology Day (ICT Day): the department organized the ICT Day to demonstrate the latest ICT development in Palestine. The main objective of this event is to bring out ICTC's latest achievements during the recent years, especially the official launch of QOU's ICT projects.
   • Participation in Arab Conference of Information Technology Conference (ACIT2006) in Jordan: two papers were nominated in this conference, one in E-learning and the other in E-commerce, and they won.
   • Participation in Online EDUCA Conference- Berlin: the department nominated one of ICTC departments to attended this conference in Germany
   • Arranging visits to the EXPOTECH 2006: the Palestinian ICT exhibition (EXPOTECH) was held in Ramallah by PALTRADE and PITA. The department arranged visits to this exhibition for a group of ICT employees from ICTC.
   • Participating in PEDEX: TDD registered QOU to participate in Palestine Third Educational Exhibition (PEDEX 2007) which will be held in Ramallah, 2-5 April 2007.
4. Training Curricula Development: the department assigned authors from ICTC to develop a training curricula for Microsoft series as follows:
   • A booklet of Microsoft PowerPoint2003, Microsoft Access2003, and Windows XP are ready for marketing.
   • While Microsoft Word2003, Microsoft Outlook2003, Internet explorer6.0, and Microsoft Project2003 are under editing.
   • Microsoft Excel is in the last stage before issuance.
5. Public Relation Activities:
   • The department organized visits to most educational organizations, NGOs, and technological institutions and distributed Microsoft booklets in order to introduce them the achievements of QOU in general and ICTC in specific.
   • The department coordinated a join venture between QOU and SAFAD to work together in preparing a proposal for Palestinian Education Initiative (PEI).
   • The department is working for a proposal of E-Training Portal funded by the Welfare.
   • Participating in preparing a proposal for Virtual Library to be submitted to Quality Improvements Fund at Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Training Methodology
We use the lecturer-based training methodology; our lecturers are trained to monitor the delegate's progress and are available throughout the course to give additional personal attention to any questions that may arise. Chase and facilitate the knowledge transfer from the classroom to the workplace. All computer courses are designed to be active and participative in nature to ensure delegate understanding of all the concepts trained. All courses are carried out in a hands-on, one-man-one-machine environment, in order to ensure optimal individual attention.

Evaluation of Skills
To ensure that training objectives have been met, it is very important to evaluate the participants' newly acquired skills. QOU Training carries this out using a variety of methods:

• Regular Recapping during Each Course: This is done by a method of questions and exercises. Our trainers always check the level of understanding of individuals before moving on to new material.
• Evaluation Forms: We ask all QOU Training course attendees to fill in an evaluation form at the end of the training session. This allows us to assess their immediate impression of the training and related services.

Providing Experience
Our instructors bring more than theory to the classroom. Our trainers have worked with the technology they teach. This provides the trainees with the additional benefit of hearing about innovative solutions to problems faced by real businesses. Our instructors have already extensive experience in e-learning, Portal and e-contents development, where they have been working in the university Academic portal and Avicenna Virtual Campus and platform.

Trainers
Our full time trainers are the most distinguished feature that we are very proud of. The staff was selected from the top list in the graduates from computer science and engineering departments. They are experts in their area of interest, where they gain the professional experience in addition to the educational background. Besides, they are trained on State of The Art in programming tools and techniques. We always look for commitment in the staff, dynamic character, and acceleration in learning. Table 1 below illustrates a summary of trainers' qualifications.

Table 1: Summary of trainers' qualifications

Training Laboratories
Our training Labs are powered with the most advanced technological infrastructure distributed around the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem in order to accommodate all trainees in every district in Palestine. Our laboratories and lectures rooms equipped with Pentium 4 PC's, LCD's, Air Conditioning, Central Heating, which provides the students with the needed conditions in order to ensure comfortable learning environment. See Appendix C for more details.