Leading suppliers and solutions providers aimed at enhancing the quality of education in the Gulf region will be featured at an exhibition to be held in Dubai next month.

The seventh edition of the Gulf Educational Supplies and Solutions (GESS) will be held from March 4 to 6 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, said a statement from the organisers.

The event will take place alongside Global Education Forum (GEF), which this year has adopted the theme “Education and the 21st Century: Skills, Opportunities and Challenges,” aimed at providing local and international insights and best practices that will help the region further boost education standards, meet the demands of the workplace, equip young people with the right skills to find employment and contribute to the long-term development of the region through education.

Youth unemployment levels in the Mena region have raised concerns throughout the region, with the World Economic Forum estimating that 75 million jobs need to be created by 2020 just to keep employment at current levels.

While the expected rise in the population of the youth is believed to account for the feared increase in unemployment levels, experts also believe that the education sector is not producing enough graduates with employable skills.

A variety of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions will give educators certificates for attending workshops and presentations featuring leading education, technology, leaderships and linguistics experts from around the world.

These sessions will tackle emerging and current issues affecting the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms throughout the Gulf, including ‘Outstanding Strategies for the Teaching of Gifted and Talented Pupils’, ‘Senior Leadership in a 21st Century School,’ and ‘Sector-Leading Practice’ in the use of data within schools.

Leading education suppliers will present mobile learning products and applications, as well as the latest robotics technolgies.

Research on technology issues will also be presented at the conference, such as developing 21st century skills and how ICT can be effectively integrated into classrooms.

The exhibition will witness the launch of Research for Learning (RfL) sessions, which will explore how evidence-based research can be transformed into realistic classroom practice.

An expert will also share insights on how young people can be better prepared for the challenges of the modern work place, what skills they need and how can these be embedded in their education.

It will include highlights of a recent pilot scheme conducted by Pearson that showed some skills are consistently required across countries – such as collaborative problem-solving and critical thinking.

The inaugural GESS Education Awards aims to encourage the raising of educational services and product standards throughout the industry and seeks to be recognised throughout the sector as the premiere platform for recognising excellence. - TradeArabia News Service