For the first time, the Associate Degrees in Jeddah Community College (JCC), which is a part of King Abdul aziz University, are open to expatriates and for that, the faculty members from JCC have just returned from a special ‘Train the Trainer' program held at Greenwich Community College in the United Kingdom. “The Train the Trainer program was part of an initiative of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Some 17 faculty members (both men and women) were selected to attend but due to the closure of the UK airports, only nine were able to attend it,” said Irfan Ahmed, Marketing Manager of Jeddah Community College. The staffers were introduced to the Technical and Vocational Education and Training System in United Kingdom. The Prime Minister Initiative (PMI) Program covered topics including teaching and learning strategies, learning styles, student motivation, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Related) objectives, etc. were discussed,” he said. Ahmed Abdulwahab, Vice Dean of the JCC expressed good hopes for the faculty members and expatriate students. “It was indeed a good learning experience for the participants. In future JCC students will also have the option of pursuing higher studies in the United Kingdom,” he said. Ahmed said that more faculty members will likely get the opportunity to increase their knowledge in United Kingdom. For the Associate Degree Courses at King Abdul aziz University in Jeddah, a student can specialize in two subjects from two universities in ‘4 years' time period. “Students can complete the Associate Degree in 2 years time, and then go in for another degree specialization in UK/ USA thereby saving money,” explained Ahmed. JCC is offering the three years Associate Degree Programs to be completed in two years time. As the students can get exemption for the first two semesters in English provided they clear the exemption exam. This will also reduce the fees by SR16,000 and enable a student to get direct admission into 3rd semester. Amir Musa, a British national opted to enroll in JCC for Marketing education, said that he is more satisfied for the standard of the education ‘since the faculty members are trained from United Kingdom.' “It will also be easy for me to study further in England and since the teachers are trained from there, I will not find any dissimilarity in teaching methods,” he said. Marketing, Accounting, Sales, Insurance, Pharmacy, Computers Network, Computer Graphics, E Commerce are among those eight Associate Degree specialties that offered by King Abdul aziz University in JCC. “These programs are best suited for final year students of reputed school because of our recent tieups with Louisiana University in USA and Greenwich University in UK,” said Ahmed adding that Application Form can be downloaded from http://www.kau.edu.sa/jcc.
