Sharjah Higher Colleges win at E-Content awards

This selection is a second victory for the Career Coach which also won an award at the UAE Contest for e-Content, a national competition which took place on August 31, recognizing the best e-content applications.

"The Career Coach" is an online career and aptitude feedback and coaching program which helps students identify personal and work related characteristics, assisting them in making more informed choices about their future course of study and career. Once students have entered data in their e-profile, reports can be generated to provide counselors with valuable data about student needs.

"Our selection as 'outstanding e-Content in the Arab Region' recognizes the value of an application that has helped many students. From 2003-2005 over 1000 students at the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology completed the Career Coach program, a high proportion of whom have demonstrated consistent records of academic success. Program evaluations have also indicated that participating students have been able to improve communication and interpersonal skills. Students report that they function more effectively in teams, set goals, and plan ahead," said Rafeef Dahir, Counselor at Sharjah Women's College and one of the developers of the Career Coach.

The Career Coach was nominated by an eminent expert from the UAE in the WSA 2005 contest for best e-Content in the world. The WSA Grand Jury of experts from 35 countries met in Bahrain from September 3rd-10th to evaluate over 750 products which were nominated from 168 countries. As part of this event, the Arab e-Content Awards, a sub-contest of the WSA, held a separate jury, comprised of the WSA experts from the Arab region. The selection and evaluation was based on the WSA rules and procedures.

As part of this selection, the Career Coach will be promoted in all Arab e-Content Award participating countries throughout 2006 and 2007, in the framework of numerous national, regional and international events, as well as in the Arab e-Content Award, Best Contents Catalogue for 2005.

The team that developed the Career Coach are Barbara Rowell, Project Coordinator and Supervisor of Foundations at Sharjah Women's College, Nawal Majeed and Rafeef Dahir, Content Developers and Counsellors at the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, Mohammad Hussein, Technical Developer and Education Technologist at Sharjah HCT, Shaikha Najla Al Qasimi, Designer at Sharjah HCT, and Jamal Sirhan and Manar Abdalla, Arabic Editors and Translators and faculty members at the Sharjah HCT.