QOU and ACTED Discuss means of Joint Cooperation

At a meeting that took place, Tuesday at QOU headquarters in Ramallah, QOU and ACTED explored ways of cooperation. The meeting was held between Ms. Ginny Haythornthwaite, Country Director of ACTED  and Mr. Ali Abdo, Director of the Digital Inclusion Project at ACTED  with Prof. Samir al-Najdi, Vice President of the University for Academic Affairs, Prof. Mohammad Shahin, Assistant to the President for Student Affairs, Dr. Eng. Islam Amr, Assistant to the President for Technology and Production Affairs and Eng. Mohammad Fahel, Director of  the Community Service and Continuing Education Center (CEC).

Prof. Samir al-Najdi, welcomed the guests and praised France support for the Palestinian people, thanking ACTED for supporting Palestinian youth through effective programs that contribute to their integration in the labor market.

Ms. Ginny Haythornthwaite spoke about the projects implemented by ACTED in Palestine, especially those targeted at young people who face challenges seeking work opportunities. ACTED is currently implementing "Digital Inclusion of Graduates and University Students" project, which seeks to address barriers to growth by leveraging all resources of digital technologies, in order to enhance the ability of Palestinian youth to integrate in labor market by improving their digital skills.

Dr. Eng. Islam Amr highlighted the progress made by QOU in terms of developing its technological infrastructure, which culminated in the launch of Al-Quds Educational Satellite Channel, and harnessing the latest advanced technological means to serve the blended education adopted by QOU, which combines traditional learning and e-learning. He also pointed out to the partnerships of the ICTC, which was established in 2008, with international organizations, including UNESCO, to implement several advanced programs that serve the academic and local communities, highlighting the university’s success in providing mobile applications for its students to enable them to take exams during the Corona pandemic.

Prof. Mohammad Shaheen pointed out  that the partnership with ACTED has started in 2018 through implementing several joint projects focused on integrating students into the labor market and enhancing the capabilities of Palestinian youth, indicating that the university is a member of the advisory committee in the digital inclusion project that targets graduates and university students, in addition to participating in all stages of discussion, leading to conducting a survey of the digital labor market in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and ending with building the electronic platform for the project, which is called ((Digi-pal Academy).

Eng. Mohammad Fahel talked about the services provided by CEC, especially the implementation of projects to serve marginalized areas in several Palestinian areas, referring to the center's partnership with several international institutions to implement these projects.

At the end of the meeting, ACTED delegation was briefed on the electronic technologies of the university by visiting the Information and Communication Technology Center and the Al Quds Educational Satellite Channel.