Learning for Skills

Her Excellency Dr. Amna AlDahak AlShamsi is the Assistant Undersecretary for Care & Capacity Building Sector at the Ministry of Education in UAE since July 2016 where she has led several strategic programs and initiatives that target two key focus areas, namely Identification and Enrichment of Gifted and Innovative Students and Student Empowerments through capacity building programs. She was also named the UAE Government Spokesperson in April 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic where she participated in carrying out national press briefings, moderating ministerial sessions, in addition to speaking at international multilateral conferences. Prior to her current position, HE held the role of the Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department at the Ministry of Education and led the planning and implementation of the first Innovation Ambassadors Program in Summer 2016. Prior to that, she was a Research Assistant and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidate at the Department of Computer Engineering in Khalifa University from 2010 to 2015. She also worked at the Department of Computer Science in the University of Sharjah as a Teaching Assistant from 2001 to 2005 and as a lecturer/faculty member from 2005 to 2010. Dr. Al Shamsi has participated with many papers in conferences and scientific journals. She also served as a reviewer in many specialized conferences. During her work with the Ministry of Education she was awarded the 2020 Best Assistant Under-Secretary Award which is one of the Ministry’s Excellence Awards and the 2019 UAE Pioneers Award for the “Voice of Tolerance” Project for which HE was the Team Leader. Her Excellency is a member of a number of prominent national and regional councils and committees, such as the Higher National Committee for the People of Determination Services, the National Food Security Council, and the Gulf Council for Giftedness for which she is also heading its executive committee. She is also a member of the advisory boards and academic committees of several colleges in the UAE universities, a member of the Board of Trustees of Ajman University of Science and Technology, and a member of the Emirates National Schools Board of Directors. HE also chairs the Child Protection Council and the National Committee for Bullying Prevention. Dr AlShamsi holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Khalifa University, and Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science from University of Sharjah. She also holds the UAE Government Innovation Diploma from Mohamed Bin Rashid Center of Government Innovation.

As we adjust to the post-pandemic world, employers and organizations around the world are looking differently at their employees and focusing more on what they can do than on what they are qualified to do. The distinction is important – the distinction between certification and capabilities, between skills and potential. Key Take Away’s from this presentation: • Skills, competencies, and capabilities are the new currency in the labour market. • The question employers are asking is “what can you actually do?”” not what degree or qualification do you have?” • The focus on skills demands changes in the work our colleges, technical institutions and universities do – both what they do and how they do it. • The key driver for this change is how we assess learning – more authentic assessment, real-world problem solving, demonstrating skills (hard and soft) and less “standardized testing” and multiple choice. • Modular, skills-based learning – stackable and ladderable to diplomas and degrees – are the future. MOOC providers understand this – hence the massive growth in MOOC registrations for degrees and microcredentials. • Quality assurance for skills does not resemble the quality assurance we have in place for degrees – it is about legally demonstrable skills and competence: “fitness of skills in use”. Stephen Murgatroyd, PhD is an experienced university teacher and administrator and former Dean, Faculty of Business at Athabasca University. He now teaches futures literacy at the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta and at Athabasca University. Author of over forty books, 200 academic papers and book chapters, Stephen is an in-demand consultant and advisor. He has advised governments and organizations around the world – recently focused on work in Dubai, Chile, Paraguay, New Zealand, US and Canada.

George Ubachs is Managing Director of EADTU. As managing director he is responsible for the development and support of the EADTU network, policies and execution of its goals in online, open and flexible higher education. As expert he is coordinator of international academic cooperation networks on networked curricula, virtual mobility, diversity and inclusion, e-assessment, AI in education and on business models for lifelong learning. He is further coordinator of the European MOOC Consortium (EMC) of Europe's leading MOOC platforms, representing the Common Microcredential Framework (CMF) and the E-xcellence movement on quality assurance in online, open and flexible education

Professor Mohamed Khalifa CEO, EDUQUAL TU Professor Khalifa received the degrees of M.A. in Decision Sciences, and PhD in Management Information Systems from the prestigious Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania). He has gained extensive professional and academic experience in several countries including the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates. He started his academic career in 1989 in the Department of Decision Sciences at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) and subsequently moved to City University (CityU) of Hong Kong where he served for over 11 years and reached the top rank of full Professor. During his tenure at CityU, Professor Khalifa also served as the founding Director of the Asia Center for Electronic Business in collaboration with Peking University and the National University of Singapore and as Affiliate Professor at Lulea University in Sweden. From 2006 to 2018 Professor Khalifa served as Chief Academic Officer in three different universities in the UAE. He is currently the CEO of an academic consultancy company offering quality assurance and accreditation services to academic institutions and ministries. The professional experience of Professor Khalifa includes the positions of Senior Consultant for the Institute of Research on Higher Education in the USA, Senior Consultant in Electronic Business and Knowledge Management for the Hong Kong Productivity Council and Senior Consultant in Business Process Reengineering for the Hong Kong Government. Professor Khalifa has received the Teaching Excellence Award twice for his distinguished teaching. Professor Khalifa has conducted extensive research in the areas of innovation adoption, electronic commerce, IT-enabled learning and knowledge management. He has published over 100 refereed articles. His work appeared in journals such as Decision Sciences, Information and Management, Communications of the ACM, OMEGA, Journal of the Association of Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, and Data Base. Professor Khalifa has also served as Senior Editor for the AIS Transaction on HCI and as Associate Editor for the European Journal of Information Systems

With more than 15 years of experience in the educational field, Sara Al Marzooqi started as a teacher in the Ministry of Education for three years before moving to Sharjah Ladies Club to be in charge of the Art and Educational Center. She was able to create a new identity for the center which was renovated later and called Collage Talent Center for children, teenagers, and women. She moved later to work for Sharjah Book Authority as the director of Sharjah Public Libraries. Sara was also an elected board member of the Emirates Libraries and Information Association for two years, which enabled her to bring her vision and experience as an educator in both formal and informal educational fields. As a holder of a Master’s of Arts in Communication, Sara has also worked as a freelance journalist and TV presenter and contributed in spreading the love of learning through different mediums.

Senior National Project Officer in Education, Chief of Unit “Teacher Professional Development and Networking” UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education Professional activity of Ms. Natalia Amelina, Ph.D., is connected with studying, analyses and development of training materials and recommendations on various trends of ICT use in educational process, including the use of ICT for people with disabilities, ICT in preschool and primary school education, ICT for skills development, ICT for TVET, etc. She has experience of more than 20 years in pedagogics. Ms. Amelina is an author of more than 30 publications in the field of education. Working in the UNESCO Institute for information technologies in education for more than 15 years Ms. Amelina participated in the international projects and being the expert and the coauthor of training materials; she took part and organized many international and national conferences, carried out a large number of meetings and the training seminars on promoting ICT in education.

Khalid is an entrepreneur, he earned his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University. California, USA and his master’s degree in Business & Engineering Management from Universally of Wollongong in Dubai. Khalid is a Former Corporate Government Relations Manager in ADNOC. He was a Speaker, Official Presenter & Master of Ceremony for multi of events in Borouge & ADNOC and was a leader of Borouge Brand & Values Campaign. He was the director of Sports, Juventus Football Club Academy in Dubai.

My name is Mohamed Abdulla Alhebsi, a Postgraduate researcher (PhD student) at the University of Leeds specialised in Material Science and Engineering, sponsored by ADNOC, expecting to graduate in December 2021. I have a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Leeds with Class I and Honours. Started my PhD at the age of 22. I was the head and a member of the Global Youth Council in the UK. Founder and former president of the UAE Society in Leeds. I worked on different projects and initiatives with world-leading companies such as Rolls Royce, Land Rover and Tesla. I have attended and participated in conferences related to different areas such as NACE 2020, One Young World 2019 in London, The Emirates Youth Global Initiative in London 2019, and the 16th UAE x UK Business Council in Abu Dhabi. I have also reached the final stage of the 2nd batch of the UAE Astronaut Programme.

Graduate from Master of Science in Innovation and Change Management, head of strategy and Quality section, and president of the Youth Council of the Supreme Legislation Committee, and the president of HBMSU Alumni Council. As the President of Youth Council at his workplace, he worked on exploring the hidden talents of the Youth, lead youth initiatives and empower them to take responsibilities and build a safe environment to experiment and trail and error as a means to enhance youth experience in various aspects related to their job, and mainly on designing, planning and executing initiatives.

Mohammad Hussain Gulfam graduated from the program of Bachelor of Business and Quality Management from HBMSU. He works as an Executive Education Officer in Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government. Furthermore, he is a member and secretary of the HBMSU Alumni Council. Also, he is passionate about volunteering with governments in Local occasions and global conferences.

Dr. Marwa Shalwani is a dental general practitioner in Dubai Health Authority as well as a member in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committee. She is a presenter of “Seha W Saada”: TV/social media show that promote health awareness on various trending issues among UAE community on Dubai TV and Sama Dubai TV. Since the beginning of Covid 19 pandemic, she has joined the Covid Command and Control Centre of Emirate of Dubai as a data analysis team-leader to facilitate residents and tourists’ analysis and needs. She received her master’s degree in sciences of hospital management from HBMSU and bachelor’s degree in dental surgery from University of Sharjah. She was the head of protocols in the first edition of Arab Model of United Nations event in 2019. She participated in different volunteering roles in several prestigious events: World Government Summit and World Special Olympics and active volunteer member in Dubai Expo 2020. She has been awarded with “Young leader of the year” from Al Leem Business Congress in 2019 for her achievements as youth advocate.

Dolly Otaky is an education professional with a broad experience in teaching and educational management. After a brief career as a primary school teacher, she started her career in higher education as a teacher educator, and has moved on to educational management roles including continuing education and training, academic quality assurance and accreditation, and institutional research. Dolly is currently the Director of Institutional Intelligence at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University.

Khadeegha Alzouebi has worked extensively on school reform and school effectiveness both in the UK and in the United Arab United. She has worked in the Education field in many capacities from classroom teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, to project directorship, to leading school reform, and postgraduate research supervision. Khadeegha has developed a research interest that is particularly concerned with enhancing the effectiveness of leaders and managers through the use of innovative technological practices while looking at factors that influence organisational learning and the different leadership styles reflected in schools with a strongly international perspective

Prof. Al Hmouz is a Full Professor in the field of Gifted Education. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education with a concentration in gifted children with learning issues from the University of Wollongong, Australia. Her main area of interest is developing assessment and evaluation tools of academic skills and cognitive abilities. Specifically, she is interested in exploring cognitive abilities for gifted students and standardizing cognitive and achievement tests in large scale projects. Prof. Al Hmouz is the Co-founder of Technological Innovations for Middle East Education (www.time.edu.jo) initiative, and the second author of Woodcock-Johnson Arabic Tests of Cognitive and Achievement Abilities. Prof. Al Hmouz has published nineteen research articles, one book, and one manual related to giftedness, learning disabilities, psychological testing, and inclusive education. In Addition, Prof. Al Hmouz is the Principal Investigator/Co-PI of five International Funded Projects ($ 326,750 Grants) to support gifted students and students with special needs in inclusive education

Dr. Meera Al-Reyaysa is part of the Deanship of Research and Doctoral Studies. She graduated with a PhD in Project Management from the British University in Dubai via the University of Manchester, UK. Her research interests include project management, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility in the MENA region. Research Interests: Project Management – Sustainability – Corporate Social Responsibility

The winner of Khalifa Award for Education (Cycle # 7, 2014); Distinguished University Professor in the Field of Teaching in the Arab World. Professor of Curriculum and Instructional Design, Tanta University, Egypt. Professor of Distance Learning, School of e-Education, Hamdan Bin Mohamed Smart University, UAE. Prof. Abdelaziz holds a Ph.D. from University of Arkansas, USA, 2004, with first class honors (4 out of 4). Former supervisor of the National Smart Learning Center in Egypt. Former director of the Distance Teaching and Training Program, Arabian Gulf University. Prof. Abdelaziz translated and published 15 books in the field of Teacher Preparation, Brain-based Learning and Teaching, Smart Learning and e-Training, and Creative Culture. Mr. Abdelaziz published more than 40 research papers in regional and international journals. Many of his models of online pedagogy and assessment are applied at the international level. Won numerous awards of excellence for the best scientific papers presented at international conferences.

Learner

Dr. Mohamed El Baradie is an Assisstant Professor of Accounting at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University in the School of Business and Quality Management. Before joining HBMSU Dr. El Baradie worked as an Assistant Professor at Al Hosn University, Abu Dhabi and The American University in The Emirates, Dubai. He also taught Accounting courses at The University of Durham during his PhD studies. He worked as a Financial Controller with American Airlines, and an Accounting Controller with P. Tech Corporation both in the USA. Also, he is a certified Business Trainer by the US AID. Dr. El Baradie’s teaching experience includes Financial Accounting, Cost/Managerial Accounting, Auditing and Finance. Dr. El Baradie received his PhD in Accounting from The University of Durham, United kingdom, an MBA from Wayne State University, Michigan, USA, and the bachelor degree from Alexandria University, Egypt. His research interests include Management Accounting techniques and the Institutionalization of Costing methods