Crown Prince attends youth-oriented debate on higher education

AMMAN — HRH Crown Prince Hussein, on Wednesday, attended a debate between students from various universities on the best higher education streams to secure a brighter future.

The first in a series of debates, the session was titled “University Education vs Vocational and Technical Education” and took place at the King Hussein Business Park.

The event, which was attended by around 500 young men and women from various governorates, was organised by the Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates-based Arab Youth Centre (AYC).

The debate was divided between two teams: the affirmative team which supported academic and university education and the competitive team which supported vocational and technical education.

Four students from each team listed the pros and cons of each type of education and how they perceived it would help them in their future work and life.

The affirmative team lobbied for university education as the key to establishing an individual’s career and the path that will set the basis for individuals wanting to enrol in vocational and technical professions.

The affirmative team saw that the labour market was in dire need of technical individuals to fill in the gap. Therefore, they deemed vocational and technical education as the basis for their future successes.

The competitive team also argued that technical and vocational education helps individuals immediately establish if they are qualified for a certain job, while university education values individuals mostly on their exams and grades.

At the end of the debate, Crown Prince Hussein expressed his admiration and pride at the level of “civilised discussion that Jordanian youth presented to express their opinions”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The Crown Prince stressed the importance of developing youth’s capabilities and skills, as well as strengthening their role in development, Petra said.

The Prince also voiced great confidence in Jordanian youth’s energy to build a better future, according to Petra.

Earlier in the day, UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs Shamma Mazrui said she was grateful to have been able to build a collaborative “youth circle” between the UAE’s AYC and Jordan’s CPF.

“We decided to build collaboration to strengthen youth debates because we realised that youth engagement debates were important platforms to give young people,” Mazrui said.

The UAE official added that it was decided to conduct the “youth debate in Jordan because the Crown Prince’s vision for youth is similar to the vision of our leadership and we are very excited to collaborate with the CPF on many other projects”, she told The Jordan Times.

Mazrui, who was appointed as the youngest government minister in the world in February 2016, according to Wikipedia, said the UAE looked at youth empowerment and engagement in a very strategic way.

“Around the world, we see so many nations talking about youth engagement and the voice of youth, and they do one summit a year or one report,” she explained. 

But in the UAE, Mazrui added, “we see youth engagement as sustainable mechanisms where governments need to continuously engage with youth every single week”.