JEDDAH — “Education for Employment,” a scheme initiated by Batterjee Medical College (BMC), will help secure employment opportunities for the college's graduates and help their career in the long-term. The scheme involves collaboration between BMC and the Saudi German Hospital (SGH) group. Through exposure at career fairs held at the college, students at the college have had an opportunity to get in touch with SGH representatives, who seek potential students for their training programs. “What we are actually offering is employment for two years. In addition to rendering work experience, this would include training in various managerial and soft skills,” said Nasser Abu Saud, human resources representative at the Saudi German Hospital. Abu Saud stated that after the training period, the graduates can choose to either stay on, or move to the government sector or other private entities. He added that if graduates chose to stay at SGH, the group promises to provide them with a challenging and motivational career path. Collaborating with BMC is one of Saudi German Hospital's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives, and the scheme also includes adapting the curriculum of study at BMC in accordance to the market's needs. Khalid Batterjee, dean of BMC, said that that he was familiarized with this way of connecting the private sectors and educational institutions during a visit to Turkey, where similar schemes were adopted by technical colleges. Batterjee said: “After gaining a better understanding of the market, we discovered things like the fact nurses are required more in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) than other departments. “So the courses at our college would focus on training in the ICU. “Furthermore, in radiology there is a higher need for technicians in MRI and CT scanning, so the courses offered would focus more on these. “I think it is important to pay attention to such details, because we should graduate students according to what is required, and not just in any specialty.” In addition to nursing, the scheme will be applied to various programs at the college such as radiology, physiotherapy and health administration. For medicine, Batterjee stated that it is more difficult to apply a program of this nature because most students graduate from an MBBS degree to pursue graduate studies.
