Governments and businesses in Saudi Arabia face a conundrum: high levels of youth unemployment and a shortage of skilled job seekers. With the Saudi government actively fielding strategies to align education with employment, sustainable growth and development, it comes as no surprise that innovation in education is riding high on the government's agenda. This is a cause for which the government has been spending tens of billions of dollars every year. Having recognized the need for educating the educators on the role of innovation and collaboration, the Kingdom Education Innovation conference kicked off at the Rosh Rayhaan hotel in Riyadh, yesterday.

The two day event will witness key stakeholders of the education sector in the Kingdom gathering and holding a comprehensive dialogue on transforming Kingdom's educational sector through innovation. Dr. Owen Cargol – Dean at the College of Business at Al Yamamah University inaugurated the conference followed by a keynote session by Tarek El Mourad – Advisor to the President of Federal National Council at Federal National Council (UAE) titled “Global trends and challenges in education”.

The morning session witnessed presentation by Dr. R. A. Thakur - Associate Professor and Head of e-learning Division at King Khalid University titled 'Next-Gen Education' that delved into improving the standard of education in the Kingdom. Jason McMillan – MD at Hewlett-Packard elaborated on 'Digital Transformation' that dealt with integrating digital technology with education and Jitin Sethi – VP at Parthenon-EY addressed the opportunities for investment and performance improvement in the GCC Universities'. According to Puneet Dhawan – SVP Sales at Panworld Education speaking about current challenges to nationwide adoption of edu-tech tools in KSA said “The biggest challenge we notice is resistance to change. While the acceptance / adoption rates are rising, the pace is quite slow. The resistance usually is from the user community (mostly teachers) and rightly so due to most available education technology is not user friendly and difficult to comprehend. Lack of ICT infrastructure is a considerable challenge as well. KSA needs an integrated strategic approach towards ICT in education sector that covers key aspects like Infrastructure, Experts to identify right Educational tools, Training / Mentorship for teacher community and so on”.

A panel discussion focusing on a holistic approach towards education by modernizing the curriculum while also assessing the role of education in the National Transformation Plan was moderated by Misbah Saboohi – Lecturer at College of Law - Prince Sultan University and was joined by Tarek El Mourad, Hamed Al Shukairi – Former Director of Digital Services and Initiatives at Ministry of Education (Sultanate of Oman) and Dr. R. A. Thakur .

Khalid Alghannam – Advisory Board Memeber at Majmaah University, elaborated on Excellence Models in Education Institutions”, while bridging the gap between Academia and Industry for Achieving Educational Excellence was the main focus of the presentation by Dr. Tauseef Zia, Sustainability Specialist at SAFCO – A SABIC Affiliate.

'Current impact and future prospects of quality assurance practices on Saudi Arabian educational system' , was brainstormed in an interactive panel discussion which was joined by
Dr. George Thomas – Director of MBA program at Prince Sultan University
Dr. Owen Cargol, Dr. Mohammad Rishad Faridi – College of Business Administration at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University
Dr. Hiam Al Aoufi – Vice Dean of Development and Quality at Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University

Today, the second day of the conference and highlighted sessions include presentations from University of Business and Technology, National Qualifications Authority, Prince Sultan University and promoting female entrepreneurship amongst women in Saudi by Dr. Anna Khan – Assistant Professor at University of Dammam.

The Kingdom Education Innovation conference is organized by Fleming. with HP as the Platinum Sponsor, Parthenon - EY as the Associate Sponsor, Panworld Education as the Innovation Partner and Tatweer Co. as the Official Supporting Partner.

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