MAKKAH: Makkah’s Umm Al-Qura University recently concluded its three-day Career and Innovation Forum 2023 that aimed to foster entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation.
The forum serves as a scientific and professional incubator in which the roles of various governmental, private and non-profit sectors are integrated to create suitable job opportunities for university graduates and students in various scientific disciplines.
Dr. Amer Al-Zaidi, UQU’s vice president for educational affairs, told Arab News that the forum brought together various ideas and entrepreneurial projects under one umbrella.
“UQU required from all of its students that their graduation projects be pioneering and serve as the nucleus of a pioneering company in the future,” he said.
He noted that 1,500 graduation projects were filtered into 60 pioneering projects through UQU’s Institute of Research and Innovation. “A group of international investment companies were invited to arbitrate these projects, including Makkah Co., owned by Umm Al-Qura University. The companies chose eight projects in preparation for converting them into pioneering companies, and signing the required contracts. One of those companies, for example, provided a design for Ihram clothes with cooling and bacteria-free features.”
Al-Zaidi pointed out that 50 international companies took part in the forum offering 2,000 training jobs. “Some of these companies even provided face-to-face interviews for immediate employment, where the interviews took place within the forum. Others provided work contracts after concluding a six-month training, which is an opportunity for students to learn about the jobs offered, and exploit them,” said Al-Zaidi.
He added that these opportunities coincided with the graduation ceremony held last week that saw the graduation of 16 thousand students, and said the university, in turn, offered jobs in addition to organizing 20 training courses and 20 workshops to train graduates for the labor market. The workshop focused on training the participants on resume formulation and knowledge preparation for the labor market.
Al-Zaidi underlined that the forum targets graduate and entrepreneurial students, along with talented local students in Makkah, with the very best given immediate admission to the university.
He said that, as part of the efforts aimed at making Makkah a smart city, “we at UQU have contracted with the Royal Commission for Makkah City to ensure the actual application of the projects submitted in the holy sites, the Grand Mosque in Makkah and in Madinah so that they form a practical extension for all the successful and winning ideas in the Hajj hackathon.”
