Launching a New IT Project at An-Najah

The event took place at the Korean-Palestinian IT Institute of Excellence DVC Conference Room and was attended by An-Najah's Acting President Professor Maher Natsheh; Public Affairs Officer Mr. Chris Hodges; Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer Ms Gina Cabrera-Farraj; the project coordinators Dr Abdulkareem Daraghmeh, Director of the Center for Excellence, Dr Abdel Razzak Natsheh, Assistant Professor in the IT Department and Ms Alia Gilbrecht, American Corner Coordinator  as well as both students and staff of An-Najah.

Prof, Natsheh first commended the project coordinators and the collaboration of the US Consulate in getting this project off the ground.

Mr. Chris Hodges followed by discussing the importance of this programme in preparing the students for integration in the market and for launching startups in Palestine to cater for the ever growing IT market in Palestine.

The project launch also included remarks by the project coordinator, Dr Abdulkareem Daraghmeh who gave an overview of the project and its objectives, most important of which is to plan and launch an apprenticeship programme for IT specializations in collaboration with the private sector and Northwestern University.

 Notes:

The project will focus on developing a new IT-programme at An-Najah which will address four major problems related to IT higher education training. It targets: a) the theoretically-based higher education training in the information technology programmes; b) the IT sector’s need for qualified graduates; c) the IT graduates’ low employability rates; and d) the low levels of entrepreneurial orientation among fresh university graduates.

The project's objective will be achieved by linking students training directly to the company environment by designing and launching an apprenticeship programme in the Information and Computer Sciences Department at the university. 

The project is expected to start phase one in November 2016 through May 2017 and complete its final stage by August 2018.