Today, APTECH continues its success by his new accomplishment in the form of an agreement to convey knowledge in the IT sector to the community through an education and scientific coalition with leading official education establishments with common scientific goals in the form of bringing IT to Yemen and establishing it in the country through well-trained and qualified staffer, who are be able to use the most advanced scientific techniques efficiently.

Hence, the agreement signed last Thursday 17 July 2003 at APTECH’s building in Sanaa between APTECH International Network and the Community Colleges of Sanaa and Aden, is a step to achieve those goals. Based on this agreement, students studying in any of the two colleges will be able to learn IT courses and gain new skills based on the most advanced educational curriculum in the world (ACCP). Those students, who will study three years in any of the two mentioned colleges will be able to continue their fourth year at APTECH in Sanaa to eventually get the Bachelor degree. Students will be able to get their Bachelor degree from APTECH and consequently continue their higher studies abroad. Among the curricula and programs offered to students of the two colleges will be: Logical Programming in C, Design and development of web pages using HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, and Dreamweaver, Administrating databases using Oracle 8i and SQL Server 2000, Advanced Java programming, Net technologies, J2EE technologies, XML programming. And there will be specializations in: E-Commerce, Network system administration, Client Server application development. Furthermore, programs and curricula of APTECH are updated annually by a special research center at
APTECH’s main headquarters.

Technological advancement

Dr. Ali Mohamed Al-Muta’, Dean of the Aden Governorate Community College said the following about the recently signed agreements, "Firstly, we have to inform you that establishing the community colleges in Sanaa and Aden was not a coincidence or an adventure. This step came out of comprehensive studies of the current situation in education, higher education, market's needs, and the widening gap between demand and supply. Hence, the presidential decree to establish the community colleges in Sanaa and Aden was issued to get Yemen out of its crisis into the horizons of information and technology of the 21st century”.

Dr. Al-Muta’ continued, "As you know, the political leadership resembled in President Ali Abdullah Saleh, President of the Republic, noticed the importance ofthe IT sector and decided to make Aden, the economic capital and the gateway ofYemen to the world and to the free Arab and international markets, a city where its youths are qualified and can be employed in various important IT sectors in the city, especially when required to work at the Aden Free Zone. Hence, the community college in Aden is considered Aden’s gateway to the technologies of the new millennium.”

Concerning the coalition agreement, Dr. Al-Muti’ said, “This agreement came in harmony with the local and foreign developments to encourage cooperation between the private, public, and mixed sectors. The agreement resembles a fruitful outcome of the trust laid on the community colleges by the political leadership. We are trusted because of our flexibility in cooperating with similar establishments with similar goals, missions, and ideas in Yemen and abroad. This agreement was also preceded by similar agreements with educational establishments in the USA, Jordan, and Morocco. We believe that the coalition agreement with APTECH will benefit the college through APTECH’s curricula and by improving capabilities of our academic and administrative staff and by allowing our students to benefit from the experience and available technologies. It is well known that the world has become a small village because of IT advancements and distances can be crossed as fast as the time of a click of a button. Our youths can tour the world in a few seconds using the Internet and computers and can benefit from their new skills and knowledge.

Yemen is in need for a new transformation and our president’s follow-up and care to community colleges reflects his vision and understanding of the importance of such colleges. We all know that attention paid to the private sector by the president signals his attempt to have the public and private sectors share tasks in Yemen's development. Hence, the signing of the agreement indicates the political and economic path taken by the state in promoting the IT sector, which could only happen by joining hands with prestigious institutes such as APTECH, whose capabilities and facilities indicate its leading position, qualified to bring IT to Yemen and train its youth to meet the ever-growing demand. We hope that the private sector would be able to achieve its goals in this regard.

Today, in harmony with those plans, Sanaa’s Community College along with Aden Community College are joining a new coalition with APTECH International Network and Manipal University to bring together all the expertise and quality education avail able in those institutions in one and provide them, for the first time, to the Yemeni student for him to achieve his ambitions in gaining the education he wishes to have so as to cope with the worldwide IT revolution.

With the knowledge and bachelor degree they would get from an intentionally renowned university, students studying at any of Aden or Sanaa community colleges could achieve what they dreamed of. By enrolling into this program and after passing the first year of study, which is a preparatory year to learn English and basic computer skills, graduates can then pursue higher studies in Yemen or abroad. This unique and new coalition requires us to think thoroughly of means to enhance the standard of our students by providing them with the necessary and basic knowledge in mathematics. English language, computers. geometry, which are all -especially English- basics needed in any future position. Hence, the curriculum will include an introductory stage during which students will enhance their language and basic computer skills.

Preparing students in their first year will enable them to quickly prepare themselves for the technology sector and give them all the necessary prerequisites for the core subjects. After students finish their first year, they start studying their main courses in their respective specializations. During those three years, students will get all they need of knowledge to enable them to reach the desired level of skills so they can find attractive work opportunities in their fields.

This coalition will definitely reflect itself in terms of greater performance and better quality overall. This will be achieved through the efforts that will be made in order to raise the standards of the teaching staffers, who will be specialized in training. It will also open new horizons for the college’s students and graduates.

This step is a transformation that would be beneficial first and foremost for the student, who will receive the best and highest quality training in the country through an advanced training system based on international standards. Similarly, the teaching staff will also benefit as they will receive all the technical guidance and training needed by qualified consultants and experts with international experience and high qualifications. Those trainers would sometimes be contracted from intentional specialized centers in other countries to train Yemeni teachers.

Mr. Khalil Ghaleb Ali Al Jabal continued by saying that "we frequently hear about the problem of unemployment faced by Yemeni university graduates. At the same time, we see many governmental establishments suffering from the lack of specialized or qualified Yemeni personnel. resulting in recruiting foreign workers. If we look at the overall picture we would realize that the reason is quite obvious, and that is the inability of Yemeni educational establishments to qualify cadres to match the market's requirements. Accordingly, we can realize why President Ali Abdullah Saleh issued orders to support and encourage technical and practical training. As a result of those orders, new Yemeni community colleges emerged with their main goal to enhance qualifications and skills of our youths to meet the demands of, not only the local market, but also the regional and international markets. Objectives of those colleges are noble as they are quite ambitious to bridge the gap between demand and supply in the Yemeni society. Experts in IT know very well the rapid and continuous development of this vital sector, which makes it quite difficult for any governmental or private educational establishment to meet the demand of the market, whether by updating curricula or training its teaching cadres.

This agreement has come to meet the ambitions by transferring advanced technologies and by continuously modernizing them, and also by extensively training its cadres to meet the demand in the IT sector in the country. Having the two colleges chose APTECH International Network to accomplish this is due to the prestigious reputation that APTECH enjoys in this field and due to its capabilities that enables it to meet the requirements. Hence, we are confident that the coalition of those educational and scientific institutes will provide our youths in Yemen with the possibility to attain the highest and most modern technical education possible. We are positive that this unique step will have positive impact in the near future and also in the long-run as we will work on bringing IT to Yemen and create and prepare a skillful and qualified generation that has all the scientific and administrative skills needed in today’s world.

Source: Yemen Times Vol 13 Issue 654, 28 July 2003, Page 13