Sidra Medical and Research Centre has announced its National Development Programmes for 2016. The programmes include education grants, internship and job shadowing opportunities.
Sidra’s Education Grant and Graduate Associate programmes are set up specifically to encourage Qataris to take up careers in clinical medicine and prepare them for roles at Sidra.
The education grant programme provides grants for Qatari students studying in clinical fields from approved local and international universities.
The Graduate Associate programme offers graduates who have successfully finished their Education Grant-supported study to join Sidra for different career opportunities.  
Dr Eiman al-Ansari, executive director of learning and development and director of National Development at Sidra said: “Our programmes are developed to give mentorship and career guidance opportunities to nationals and motivate them to take up key roles in the healthcare sector. Our goal is to target those currently studying for clinical degrees but also to encourage students and guide them to different career paths in the healthcare sector.”
Sidra has continued its partnership with Bedaya Centre by launching two job shadowing programmes this year. The programmes aim to provide opportunities for high school students to work and shadow a Sidra employee for a day. More than 16 students were mentored by department heads at Sidra including communications, recruitment and the simulation centre in the first round in January.
The next round of the job shadowing programme will take place in August.
Sidra’s National Development Programmes focus on developing and empowering local talent to support Qatar’s National Vision 2030. In its effort to promote this objective across the country, Sidra has participated in a number of events this year including the Qatar Career Fair (Winter Camp), the QF Career Fair at Hamad Bin Khalifa University; and Weill-Cornell Medicine’s Medicine Unlimited event.
“Our Education Outreach team has participated in some of the leading career fairs across universities and high schools in Qatar. In partnership with Sidra’s simulation team and support from several of our clinical leads including Nursing and Paediatric Emergency, our outreach programmes are packaged to give students first-hand experience in a simulation type setting. The programme gives students the opportunity to learn more about careers in medicine,” Dr al-Ansari said.