Impact of "Enhanced Employment of Mechanical Engineering Graduates through partnership with industry and Private Sector Project (QIF)

The Enhanced Employment of Mechanical Engineering Graduates project, funded by the Quality Improvement Fund-QIF, provides key skills for undergraduate and recent graduate students of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at Birzeit University.

The project has been developed with the increasing need of bridging the growing supply-demand skills gap, aiming to tackle the problem of lack of job-readiness of mechanical and mechatronics engineering students. Therefore, members of the Departments of Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering, based on a gap-analysis method, academic-industry partnership model, and a practical training revision, developed four elective courses.

Department laboratories were upgraded by purchasing new training sets and equipment to develop students’ ability to practice and train. International consultants conducted TOT for faculty members and local market industrial partners. A number of activities were conducted throughout the project’s period, such as field visits to industries training, and hosting guest speakers to talk about new developments in technology.