LAU to provide Qatar with education and training programs

LAU signs three letters of intent with a Qatari delegation representing Al Jaber Group to provide the country with E.M.B.A. and teacher-training programs.

October 11, 2010

Dr. Joseph G. Jabbra, LAU president, and Osama Hadid, managing director of Al Jaber Engineering in Qatar and Al Jaber Group partner, signed three letters of intent on October 4 to allow LAU to provide Qatar with new education and training programs.

Dr. Walid Touma (standing), director of the University Enterprise Office which is overseeing the deal, explains some details about the initiative.

A three-member delegation from Qatar representing construction giant Al Jaber Group signed three letters of intent with LAU on October 4 to allow the university to provide the Gulf country with new education and training opportunities.

The letters of intent included plans to offer an LAU Executive Master of Business Administration degree in Qatar, an executive-training program that could lead to an E.M.B.A., and a massive program to train teachers and principals at over 130 independent schools in the country.

“This is a great opportunity for all of us,” said Dr. Joseph G. Jabbra, LAU president, after signing the letters of intent with Osama Hadid, the managing director of Al Jaber Engineering in Qatar and Al Jaber Group partner who headed the delegation, inside Irwin Hall’s Faculty Lounge at LAU Beirut. “We’re looking forward to a closer, more effective and productive relationship,” added Jabbra.

The launching of the three programs, which is being overseen by the University Enterprise Office at LAU, is expected to take place in early 2011. UEO has played a major role in conceptualizing this cooperation and facilitating the process with Al Jaber Group.

The signing of the letters of intent followed a series of visits as well as meetings between UEO and representatives of Al Jaber Group and of LAU’s School of Business, specifically Dr. Tarek Mikdashi, dean of the school in Beirut; Dr. Wassim Shahin, dean of the school in Byblos; and Dr. Elias Raad, chairman of the Business Studies Department in Byblos, director of the E.M.B.A. program, and director of the Institute for Banking and Finance at LAU.

LAU’s School of Business will be the caretaker of the E.M.B.A. and executive-training programs. Faculty from the school will travel to Qatar to provide the same E.M.B.A. program that is also offered at LAU.

The teacher-training program will be coordinated by LAU’s Teacher Training Institute and the School of Arts and Science, and will prepare instructors to meet teaching standards set by the Qatari educational authorities.

“This is a mega project and LAU will provide the academic support and teaching body,” says Dr. Walid Touma, UEO director.

LAU was chosen to provide the three-component package by Integral Training and Development, a member of Al Jaber Group, in response to the country’s Qatarization program, which aims to develop the Qatari workforce through education and training.

“It’s an objective of the government in Qatar to provide more regular education for its students to cope with the working environment in the country,” says Mohammad Nagib, the training and development manager at Integral Training and Development. “The students are usually sent outside Qatar for training, but we thought, ‘Why don’t we bring a university to Qatar that could provide the same?’”

LAU officers, Al Jaber Group and UEO members, and others involved in the project after the signing event.

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