Elite and Academic Education Exhibition in Fujairah

Fujairah First

For the first time Fujairah is hosting the Education Exhibition for all emirates apart from Abu Dhabi. This regular event provides rich opportunities for tertiary institutions to display their unique advantages to secondary school students.

Details

• The Elite and Academic Education Exhibition is being held at the Fujairah Exhibition Center from 17-19 April 2011.
• An opening ceremony was held this morning (17 April) with speeches, cultural entertainment and a tour of the exhibition by VIPs and their entourage.
• The exhibition is being held by the Ministry of Education in cooperation with the Fujairah Education Council and a bevy of sponsors.
• Over 35 universities and tertiary Colleges and Academies are exhibiting.
• On the opening day more than 400 students were in attendance and the organizers are expecting between 3-4,000 students over the three days of the exhibition.

Decisions

Chocolates, sweets, pens, glossy brochures, interactive computers were all being used to woo prospective students to the display booths and then to the Colleges.

Students were eager to explore entrance requirements, tuition fees, residential possibilities, the availability of scholarships and laptops that were being sold at a reduced rate to students.

Big decisions confront the students and the rich choices often accentuate the complexity of the issue.

On the second and third days presenters from the universities will have 15 minutes to make their case from the stage about why students should come to their institution.

Deliberations

Some important factors for students to think about:

1. Seek to get the best education you can.

2. Increasingly people are changing their occupation up to four times in the course of their lifetime which may suggest the importance of getting a good all-round education rather than embarking on a specialized degree that will provide an immediate ‘meal ticket’.

3. How does one weigh up the worth of the different paths to walk? How does one know which vocation to embrace amidst the various options that might beckon?

Discernment

American author, Frederick Buechner helpfully addresses this question when he says:

“There are all different kinds of voices calling to you, all different kinds of work … By and large a good rule for finding out your vocation is to think about the kind of work (a) that you need most to do, and (b) that the world most needs to be done.”

“If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you have missed requirement (b). [Buechner’s example suggests that he does not think deodorant serves a significant purpose!] On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor among leprosy patients, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you are bored and depressed by it, the chances are you’ve not only bypassed (a) but you probably aren’t helping your patients much either.”

“Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do.”

Discovering Your ‘Deep Gladness’

Frederick Buechner concludes by saying that our vocation is usually discovered at the place where our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

(Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking)

Take a Look

Some photos are in this photo album of some of the people attending the first day of the Elite and Academic Education Exhibition in Fujairah and the types of display booths they were able to visit.

Geoff Pound

This article is also posted in the Fujairah in Focus—Facebook Page.