KFAS program seeks to boost nat’l cadres skills

KUWAIT CITY, July 6, (KUNA): Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) has wrapped up the 2020 “innovation challenge” program, virtually organized in coordination with Wharton Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.

The activity involved teams from ten Kuwaiti companies specialized in upgrading skills of national cadres in sciences, technology and innovation.

KFAS Director General Dr. Khaled Al-Fadhel said in a statement on Tuesday that the foundation has launched the program to lure private companies into engagement in the scientific, technological and innovative sectors.

Future of social and economic development largely hinges on efforts aimed at shifting to an economy based on knowledge as foundation of scientific research, he added.

Due to covid-related constraints on travel and lockdowns, the program had lasted for 15 months, Al-Fadhel explained, indicating that the participants concluded the third part of the program, virtually, with respect of digital transformation and virtual learning.

Meanwhile, Bassam Al-Feeli, KFAS’ director of companies and innovation, said in a statement that the program that has been organized annually since 2015 hinges basically on diverse learning methods, teaching curricula known for stimulating creativity and abstention from conventional ways in commerce.

Al-Feeli said the coronavirus spread created new challenges to companies, whereby participants in the 2020 program had to revise their projects, during time between two phases, to enable their companies cope with challenges and new conditions caused by the pandemic.

Among the participants were Kuwait Finance House, the National Bank of Kuwait, the Commercial Bank of Kuwait, the Gulf Bank, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, Kimco, Wara hospital, Equate, Burgan Bank and Al-Kout Food Group.

The program included workshops and seminars that were held in Kuwait. A number of elite professors of the American university had delivered lectures and participants examined experience of conglomerates namely Facebook, Casic, Google, Spacex, Inc Autodesk and Databricks.

KFAS launched the program late 2014. It had involved up to 236 Kuwaiti personnel from 29 Kuwaiti companies. They had launched initiatives that proved efficient for the participating companies particularly with respect of overcoming challenges.