Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University Seeks to Teach Today's Youth to Become Tomorrow's Leaders as Globally Competent Citizens

Over the past century, our vast world has in certain ways become increasingly smaller. With the rise of commercial airplane flight, every major city across the planet has come to be within a day's journey of each other. People who would never have interacted, separated by continents, can now instantly communicate, originally thanks to telephones but now even more profoundly via the internet's limitless reach.    

With planet Earth condensing into what is in essence a village Earth, it is growingly important for today's youth—tomorrow's leaders—to be aware of and understand the broader world and our interconnectedness as global citizens.

To empower youth to succeed in this way worldwide and with a special focus on the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU) has established itself as a center for the development of global citizens. PMU is spearheading the creation of effective programs and strategies for teaching global competencies that encompass the knowledge, skills, and attributes required of tomorrow's leaders.

The initiative is all a part of instilling a culture of lifelong learning, enabling youth to gain, develop, posses, build, and acquire global competencies. These competencies, in turn, can help in solving the social, academic, and professional problems that all people on Earth will in one way or another face in the decades to come.

"PMU intends to provide the youth with ample opportunities to develop and demonstrate competencies that prepare them to be globally competent citizens and lifelong learners," said Dr. Issa Al Ansari, President of PMU. "We are striving to give young people in the MENA region and around the world the best available approaches."

A total of ten global competencies have been identified, analyzed, and developed by PMU for teaching to interested and motivated individuals who want to help make a positive difference. These competencies are as follows: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, Coordinating with Others, People Management, Judgment and Decision Making, Service Orientation, Emotional Intelligence, Negotiation, and Cognitive Flexibility. This program is a part of community services in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"By addressing each of these competencies through education and training, we can help form globally minded and highly capable people," said Dr. Al Ansari.

Overall, the learning never ends and there are no limits to the understanding and knowledge that can be attained by progress-seeking global citizens.