‘Thati’ mentoring programme to develop Sharjah’s fresh graduates
Sharjah: Three exceptional Emarati graduates, who studied in universities and higher education institutions in Sharjah, will be chosen for the first phase of a mentoring program ‘Thati’, which aims at providing those chosen with the toolkit to build their leadership and management skills.
The first and trial phase of the programme, which is managed by the Executive Office of Shaikha Jawaher Bint Mohammad Al Qasimi, will start this September and will accept two female and one male graduates from the 2012 batch.
Noura Al Noman, Director General of Her Highness’ Executive Office (HHEO), explained that the ratio of females is higher because of the nature of the organisations under the HHEO, which is where the graduates will be placed in a management position after the programme concludes.
Noura said that the programme, will only take “the best of the best” and to ensure this, the recruitment process will be done through the career advising offices in universities and colleges. “Graduates will be selected by their educational institutions and will go through a process of interviews and tests to measure their potential for learning and development.” she added.
The criteria for being enlisted in the initial phase of this two-year programme are that one should be an Emirati, graduating in 2012 with at least a 3.5 GPA in their chosen degree and have had some work placement experience or an internship.
The mentorship programme will include training courses for up to 30 days per year as well as working at HHEO and selected private and semi-government entities with a monthly salary, Noura explained. “Sharjah Islamic Bank has agreed to be a strategic partner and sponsor of Thati; and opened its doors to our graduates to train in the various departments and divisions of the Bank.”
The programme will develop the graduates’ leadership skills, teach them the basics of managing people as well as provide them with Financial awareness — such as learning about balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and how to financially manage social organisations. The programme will also allow students to meet senior managers in informal settings and learn from their experience four times a year.
Commenting on the number of graduates that will be accepted, Noura said that this is just the initial phase and they want to be focused. “The number might increase when the programme is tweaked to perfection.” She added that the programme is limited to Sharjah graduates, but in the future they might expand to include graduates from other Emirates.
Mohammad Abdullah, Executive Director of Sharjah Islamic Bank, emphasised that this was not an employment programme, but a leadership programme. “It is great to see that we have moved from just employing Emaratis, to empowering, training and guiding them to be leaders.”
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