Training the youth for the job market and getting them employment-ready is a priority agenda in any nation. Qatar is no exception when it comes to structured and organised effort, with Injaz Qatar having played an increasingly important role in this area since 2007. With almost a decade done, Emad Al Khaja, Injaz Qatar executive director, talks exclusively to The Edge about Injaz’s achievements, challenges and plans in the coming years. by Aparajita Mukherjee
As the newly appointed executive director of Injaz Qatar, Emad Al Khaja graduated from New York Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree, specialising in economics and finance. Al Khaja followed that with an MBA degree in international marketing from Paris Business School in France.
Commenting on his pre-Injaz Qatar work experience, Al Khaja says, “I’ve worked initially in the banking sector with HSBC, in their corporate and marketing division for around three years, followed by five years in Qatar Finance and Business Academy, a subsidiary of Qatar Financial Centre, in their marketing and business development, after which I joined Injaz.”
Al Khaja reiterates that the transition from a career in the financial services industry to one that deals in a non-profit organisation has been part of a journey that he has taken with consideration. Detailing his voluntary work experiences, Al Khaja says, “Aside from my qualification, experience and career background, I’ve always been involved in a lot of national development initiatives here in Qatar and in the region in a voluntary capacity. With Injaz Qatar, I volunteered both as a programme instructor and as a master of ceremonies, in addition to conducting programmes with Bedaya Center on a series of workshops for young entrepreneurs on how to market their businesses as well as being the master of ceremonies for Doha Film Festival. With Injaz Qatar, I was passionate about what they’ve done and it is partly my voluntary engagements that made me grow up as an individual.”
Achievements of Injaz
Injaz Qatar, set up in winter 2007, partners with the local business community, corporate volunteers and educators to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in the global economy. It is a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide (JA Worldwide), a global non-profit youth organisation dedicated to educating students from primary school through university on financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship with experiential, hands-on programmes. JA Worldwide is the largest organisation of its kind in the world, working with local businesses and organisations across 120 countries.
Since 2007, according to Al Khaja, Injaz Qatar has reached over 19,000 students across 45 schools in Qatar, from independent (public) schools to international or private schools.
“In addition, we have reached six universities in Qatar, including Qatar University. Our network has been greatly helped by more than around 900 corporate volunteers who assisted in delivering the programmes to the students,” says Al Khaja.
“We help students acquire a certain set of skills that prepares them for corporate life through our diverse programmes that focus on three different pillars – work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.”
Has Injaz Qatar monitored how they have evolved and grown, specifically due to Injaz’s efforts? According to Al Khaja, Injaz Qatar’s targets are to keep increasing the quality of its programmes and reaching out to more volunteers by engaging corporate partners in order to achieve better results with a higher number of students. “Over the past couple of years, we have also been trying to branch out and diversify into youth centres and sports clubs which have also become our target audience,” informs Al Khaja.
Commenting on what Injaz Qatar does with the students and youth that it reaches, Al Khaja says, “We educate them. We help them acquire a certain set of skills that prepares them for corporate life. We have a list of programmes that focus on three pillars – work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy – which we try to promote among our youth.”
Al Khaja also mentions that Injaz Qatar starts its journey with the students right from the preparatory school stage and continues to high schools and then to their university life, offering a set of different programmes at each stage. He adds that this ensures a mentoring throughout the entire growth phase of the student.
Quantifiable benchmarks
Al Khaja mentions that, as an organisation, Injaz has set a metrics system that can help them measure the impact of each programme. “So we start with pre-tests (which is essentially done prior to delivering the programme), periodically assess students, within the scope of the programme just to measure their knowledge. This goes on until post-tests which measure the challenges and lessons learnt, providing feedback on the programme content itself, on the volunteer performance and the percentage of student satisfaction,” he says.
On the duration of the sessions, Al Khaja says, “It could start from around one hour and could go up to five hours, delivered once a week within or after school hours.”
For Injaz, the corporate volunteers are a key differentiator in the way the organisation has envisioned itself. For Al Khaja, “They are the key element of our model and they come with practical knowledge based on their actual experience of the employment realities – be it regarding employment skills, career progression in related fields, whether it’s business, engineering or law.”
Injaz, according to Al Khaja, links this kind of real world professional experience to the student. To date, Injaz has reached 900 corporate volunteers, according to Al Khaja, across the private and public sectors and spanning diverse industries.
Pan-Arab initiative
Injaz Qatar benefits from being a part of a wider global network, JA Worldwide, and being part of Injaz Al Arab which spans over 14 countries within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Delving on the advantages that Injaz Qatar derives from being a part of Injaz Al Arab, Al Khaja says, “Because Injaz Qatar is a member nation under Injaz Al Arab, we are in a position to share a lot of its well- developed programmes offered in Arabic, and localised them to fit the market and the culture.”
Injaz Qatar has been able to draw on Injaz Al Arab’s experience and journey through the yearly initiative of the Annual MENA Training (AMT), which, in the opinion of Al Khaja, provides an opportunity for the “pan-Arab team to share ideas and learn from each other’s experiences throughout the whole process. AMT also allows us to train our employees for a certain set of skills that are needed for the job”.
The AMT sessions are taken by two categories of trainers: one, outside experts and speakers who excel in their respective domains; and two, the employees of Injaz Al Arab who share their journey with the broader team. “These sessions help Injaz Al Arab arrive at best practices for the region,” says Al Khaja.
Integration of the youth in the workplace
With the purpose of easing work readiness and making the entry into the job market seamless for the Qatari youth, Injaz Qatar, in the words of Al Khaja, has three specific programmes: Steer Your Career, Career Success and Head Start. The target groups of all of these programmes are university, high school and preparatory school students.
Elaborating on these programmes, Al Khaja says, “We try to make the programmes very practical for the students and one of the positive features is their structured nature, meeting the quality standards set by JA Worldwide.”
Giving an example of how well structured the programmes are, Al Khaja mentions that for anyone who would like to volunteer to deliver any of these programmes, “the user-friendly manual or kit that they receive takes them step by step, guiding them how to do it while, at the same time, leaving enough room to also manoeuvre a distinct personal style”.
“Corporate volunteers are the key element of how we run and they come with practical knowledge based on their actual experience in the work field.”
Al Khaja highlights a particular initiative called the Job Shadow Day where Injaz engages corporate partners from the Qatari marketplace. “This programme,” mentions Al Khaja, “is targeted at high school and university students mainly. The implementation model is that students will shadow certain roles in the company and see for themselves what actually happens in the corporate world. The students get a peek into specific corporate roles; how the concerned people handle situations. We’ve had excellent feedback about this programme and are thankful for the guidance that we receive from our corporate partners.”
Another initiative of Injaz Qatar is to connect university students with its corporate partners for internships. “And in some cases, they were actually hired after they finished their internships,” says Al Khaja.
Injaz and Arab entrepreneurs
Injaz Al Arab, on a broader level, and Injaz Qatar, locally, also have concerted efforts for aspiring entrepreneurs. This is especially vital in a nation which is still primarily hydrocarbon-driven.
Entrepreneurship is a very important pillar in Injaz Qatar, and this holds true for Injaz Al Arab on a wider scale, informs Al Khaja. “These programmes start from preparatory schools, continues to high schools and goes on to university,” says Al Khaja. “There is one programme in particular and it’s my personal favourite, which is called the Company Programme. Here we have teams from each school simulating a company.”
The teams start with a business idea and Injaz Qatar volunteers lead them into how to develop the idea and guide them on the process of creating a company from scratch. “At the end of the sessions, they have a company that they become shareholders in, have operating assets and a capital base. In the course of these sessions, teams have actually come up with real tangible products or services,” informs Al Khaja. The format of the Company Programme allows a corporate volunteer to be a mentor by advising and guiding the students throughout the process. This is the longest programme because it is around 12 sessions spread over four months which ends with a trade fair, which allowing student teams to sell their products, and a national competition built into the timeframe.
Elaborating on the competition which is called Mubadara (which means ‘initiative’ when translated from Arabic), Al Khaja says, “It’s an annual two-day competition. The panel of judges is culled out mostly from the sponsoring companies, Injaz Qatar board members and partners as well as representatives from ministries. There are certain judgement criteria in terms of product quality, marketing strategy, financing, and teamwork.”
Collaboration with Injaz
Injaz Qatar, according to Al Khaja, welcomes any kind of collaboration with universities in Qatar. He cites, “Whether it’s reaching out to students, or getting volunteers from those universities or even having them support us to host our events, any kind of collaboration is welcome.”
What new initiatives does Al Khaja plan to bring on board as part of his new role? Al Khaja also describes the designing/developing of a new localised programme for high school students as “one that will be dedicated to teaching them the mechanisms of investing in the stock market – buying, bid and sell price, broker services, including spending a whole day at Qatar Exchange and under a potential affiliation with them”.
“When I see Injaz Al Arab and analyse the country data, I can feel Qatar’s presence growing in the overall developments, which is a humbling experience for me,” Al Khaja, adds “there are a few things that I am planning to work on and one of them is upping the marketing and publicity aspects, which is a natural thing for me, coming from a marketing background. Injaz Qatar has done an amazing job but maybe publicity wise, it needs to be showcased more and made visible by highlighting the success stories and the great initiatives.”
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