Employability & Partnerships

The Higher Colleges of Technology engages with a number of high profile national and multinational organizations in mutually beneficial partnerships. These partnerships lead to successful knowledge and best practice sharing, as well as facilitating employment and work placement opportunities for HCT students and recent graduates.

The Employability & Industry Engagement (EIE) Department is responsible for overseeing these partnerships and collaborations, as well as ensuring students and graduates are given all possible opportunities to explore and develop their career opportunities, through employment, sponsorships or work placement.

Through close interaction with its industry partners, HCT continuously strives to enhance its program offerings and the HCT students’ academic experience. HCT’s partnerships with industry members open up unique opportunities for students and staff, increase quality of HCT research initiatives, improve teaching and learning standards, and inspires innovation and entrepreneurship.

Across its 16 campuses, HCT provides collaboration opportunities across a wide range of academic disciplines and departments. These include:

• Graduate Employment
• Students Sponsorship
• Students Scholarships
• Students Work Placement/Internship
• Students Capstone Projects
• Collaboration in Entrepreneurship areas
• Joint Applied Research
• Participation in University-Industry Advisory Committees
• Events, Career fairs and Conferences
• Competition sponsored by Industry
• Delivering specialty lectures/workshops
• Mentoring

All HCT campuses have Employability and Industry Liaison teams that support students in making future focused career decisions, having high regard to the needs and expectations of the UAE and International employers.

E-Employability Hub

In alignment with the UAE Government’s initiatives to create an innovation-based economy, vis-à-vis the UAE National Innovation Strategy and the Government Innovation Framework, the HCT’s EIE department has launched the E-Employability Hub, which is part of the HCT’s online teaching and learning framework – the HCT Digi Campus.

The E-Employability Hub has been created to boost HCT students’ and graduates’ employability skills through a number of innovative initiatives. As such, the Hub prepares these students and graduates to be employers’ first choices, when hiring, through a series of interactive and work-relevant online workshops.

These workshops enhance the students’ job readiness through online career planning workshops covering a range of topics, including:

• Interview Skills
• Job Search Techniques
• CV Writing
• Personal Branding
• Work Ethics & Professionalism

Upon completion of each course, graduates receive completion certificates for each module attained.

Work Placement

As a pre-graduation requirement, all HCT students are required to complete an eight-week work placement period, working with an employer in the industry sector matched with the students’ particular field or program of study.

Work placement prepares students for active roles in the workplace by providing them with the opportunity to consolidate and nurture skills learned in the program through a hands-on experience at employers for a period of eight (8) weeks.

By providing work placements for HCT students, employers will have the opportunity to attract new, highly qualified talent for employment, as well as increase their visibility on-campus, and give back to the community.

HCT Ambassador Program

The HCT Ambassador Program aims to prepare students for their work placement by providing them with employability readiness workshops.

The HCT Ambassador Program is mandatory for students in order for them to be eligible for the work placement course. Students will need to complete five (5) Pre-Work Placement Training Modules as a pre-requisite for work placement.

The Program is an essential component that complements, and adds value to, the students’ work placement experience. Successful completion of the program is recognized as an additional skills endorsement.

This Program provides Uber-like employability readiness services through fully delivered, online Pre-Work Placement Modules. Students can learn the modules at their own pace and take a short final assessment to ensure they have understood the material. The students will earn a certificate of completion for each module.

The modules covered in the program are:

• Work Placement Readiness
• Job Interview Skills
• Job Search Techniques
• Personal Branding
• Writing an Effective CV