General English Course – Community Engagement Programme

As serving the community is part of the UTAS-Ibri Mission and goal, the ELC management of UTAS-Ibri decided to provide a General English course for the community. The General English course was advertised on the UTAS-Ibri website, Twitter and Instagram account. A needs analysis survey was conducted, and more than 350 students expressed what they needed from the course. The General English course catered to university students, self-employed, unemployed students and employed students. The placement test was conducted on May 30, 2022 and students were put in different levels.The teachers who taught the course were Michael Cassidy, Zumrut Cassidy, Hind Al Mahrouqi, Dr Miriam Cordova, Dr Eman Issa, Andries Oberholzer, Rosalie Balmas, Mariette Oberholzer and Dr Mohsin.

The material was created and compiled based on students’ needs. The course ran from June 12 to June 23, 2022) The classes were packed with highly interactive student-centred activities focused on speaking and writing and motivating them to overcome their weaknesses and excel in what they needed. An inspiring talk was conducted by Ms Misoon Sulaiman Al Sakiti, an alumna of the Engineering department. She spoke about job opportunities at the PDO and her experience in the engineering field to the unemployed students on June 15, 2022, to motivate them.

All the students gave a presentation on their classroom learning experiences on the ninth day. There was a Video presentation of the classroom activities. On the final day, 23/6/2022, there was a General English programme held at the lecture theatre of UTAS- Ibri. Sheikh Mohsin Hamed Mohsin Al Maskari, the wali of Ibri, presided over the function. A report on the General English Programme was delivered by Dr Abdusalam Al Manthari, HOC, ELC, UTAS-Ibri.

Certificates were distributed to the students and teachers by the chief guest Sheikh Mohsin Hamed Mohsin Al Maskari, the wali of Ibri and Dr Hamdan Al Manthari, the dean of UTAS-Ibri. One can tell that the General English course was a complete success as there was evidence of joy and happiness on the faces of the students and the fact that they were already asking about the dates of the next course.