Medical courses for unskilled employees

The Gulf Medical University (GMU) has launched a series of short courses as part of a community outreach programme extended as an opportunity to unskilled health care workers seeking career advancement. A total of 24 specialised long and short term courses are now being offered at GMU's Centre for Continuing Education and Community Outreach. Professor Meenu Cherian, director of the centre, said the courses are not yet accredited by the UAE's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. "These courses are meant for non-traditional learners," she said. "They are meant for all the unskilled workers in the health care sector who seek to climb the career ladder and can't afford a formal university education." She added they could also serve as ‘university taster' courses for high school graduates interested in pursuing a career in medicine. The courses, some of which will qualify workers as nurse, dental and pharmacy assistants, are made up of seven long-term (10-month) courses that include work placement. The remaining 17 short-term (10-day) courses tackle fundamental topics such as basic Arabic for health care professionals, infection control for non-clinical health care workers and introduction to health care careers. "Some of the more specialised courses cater to people who have prior knowledge of medicine and therefore have prerequisites," said Professor Cherian, "while other courses can be done by people who have just finished schooling in the science stream, if they are motivated and ready to learn." She added the requirements for the short-term courses are a basic knowledge of science and fluent English, demonstrated with an adequate TOEFL score. Market needs The GMU short medical courses were launched in January this year and have seen growing interest from the public. "Initially there was not much awareness about these programmes but the response has been growing slowly and steadily," Cherian said. "A popular one is the basic Arabic course for health care professionals, which has received the greatest interest." She added a total of nearly 50 people are enrolled on all 24 of GMU's new programmes. The course topics were identified by the university's marketing department as a good response to market needs. Professor Cherian said they were a direct response to a lack of formal basic training for health care sector workers in the UAE. "GMU is also part of the Gulf Medical Centre hospitals and so we see first-hand what unskilled health care workers need." From a starting cost of Dh2,500 up to Dh6,000 interested parties can sign up to any of the weekend courses for which they qualify. Upon completion of their chosen programme they can expect to receive a certificate of participation from GMU with a transcript of continuing education hours counted through their work experience. "They are blended programmes and they are not entirely face-to-face as reading materials and assignments are all done online during the week," Cherian said.