News

ACK kicked-off its annual Ramadan Iftar meals distribution drive as part of its corporate social responsibility strategy. The initiative is a humble gesture during the holy month of Ramadan from ACK towards community members and disadvantaged families.

Over the past years, ACK had organized initiatives every Ramadan with its students, staff and faculty to hand out Iftar meals to needy members of the community, but as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College limited volunteers to only a small number of staff members. The team streamlined efforts to distribute Iftar meals and ensure compliance with precautionary measures.

Ms. May Al Musallam, Senior Manager of Public Relations at ACK, highlighted the importance of giving back to the community, noting that the College remains true to its core values of helping the community even more in difficult times such as these.

“ACK was built around a culture of care, and as a College, we believe it is our responsibility to care for all those in need, not just our students. It is important to us to lend a helping hand to those who need it.” concluded Ms. Al Musallam.

To complement the efforts disbursed by all official authorities in order to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, ACK has launched an awareness and promotional vaccination campaign targeting staff and students particularly, and the Kuwaiti society in general.

The campaign launched with the receipt of ACK’s Executive Management the vaccine; it was then followed by an advertising awareness campaign on social media and ACK’s communication platforms.

The objective of the campaign was to highlight the importance of the vaccination and contribute in reducing the spread of the virus, not only for self-preventing the disease but also as a national duty and corporate social responsibility to reassure the health and safety of all.

Commenting on this responsible initiative and the fact that taking the vaccine is the only solution to pursue the normal life. Professor Isam Zabalawi, President of ACK said: “I thank the government of Kuwait for their hard work and efforts for such a tremendously organized vaccination process. I also would like to thank the employees of ACK for their cooperation and support during this critical period of time, and for following the College’s Health and Safety rules and regulations to ensure everyone’s health and safety.”

He also stressed on the importance of similar community based initiatives that ACK is conducting as it plays an important role in educating and serving the society as a whole and he hopes that this awareness campaign is spread on a larger scale.

A team of students from ACK won third place in the “Universities Entrepreneur Battle” organized by the Minister of Youth Affairs for their project idea, which sought to help ease the daily lives of the blind.

The Universities Entrepreneur Battle was organized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs for university students in Kuwait in order to support and develop youth skills in various fields and highlight their creative abilities in creating ideas for projects that can benefit society. The competition consisted of 18 teams from seven different universities who put forth their ideas for projects that can have a positive societal impact.

The ACK team united two students, Nujoud Al Azmi and Nour Al Mutairi and presented their project entitled “Speaking Map for the Blind”. The objective of the project sought to ease burdens of the blind by giving them greater accessibility to public areas with a map that speaks directions to them. The project also included a small wireless earphone that accepts voice commands so it can be activate and useful by voice alone. A further benefit is that the program can be used in government sector buildings in order to give users greater accessibility when conducting their necessary transactions.

CWorth mentioning that the project could be executed internationally and according to the estimation of the students it would take 17 months to create and implement, and would cost roughly 50,000 Kuwaiti Dinars to produce.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs announced the winners on Instagram during a live session. Where Mr. Hussain Al Haddad, Manager of Student Affairs at ACK, attended representing the College. Mr. Al Haddad congratulated the participants for their efforts and thanked the Ministry of Youth Affairs for giving students across Kuwait such a great opportunity to improve their skills and benefit their community.

Further elaborating on the benefits of competition to students, Mr. Al Haddad said “The spirit of competition is effective in fostering students’ characters, and the constructive use of their abilities works excellently to benefit them personally while also benefiting society as a whole.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the School of Aviation (SOA) at ACK is determined to provide aviation students the best teaching methods and ultimate expansion opportunities. Hence, the SOA in line with the current situations adopted the (E-learning) and started its academic 2019/2020 year through Microsoft Teams platform, after receiving the needed approvals from all aviation authorities such as Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

It is worth mentioning that it was a common argument of all relevant people that Aviation students would still have to attend their practical sessions in person and the EASA license examinations should be conducted in person too. In this sense, the SOA in collaboration with the Health and Safety Department of ACK has created covid-19 safe campus protocols after receiving the necessary approvals from the local authorities. Thus, aviation students and instructors were able to resume the required practical sessions from campus. The aforementioned achievements reinforced the determination of the aviation team and management and made them work hard to develop and introduce new courses despite the challenging situation.

Also, one of the greatest achievements during this time was that the SOA had successfully introduced the B1.1+B2 combined course providing its B1.1 graduates additional progressive path, which also allows them to pursue their education and earn recognition locally, regionally and internationally. Upon course completion, students may then apply for B1.1 and B2 AME licenses. This combined course will grant ACK’s students an advantage and priority in the job market.

Commenting on the continuous achievements, the Senior Director of the SOA at ACK, Captain Abdul Hameed Al Refai said: “We are constantly monitoring the market trends in the aviation industry to ensure our response to the market needs and equip our students with the latest industry knowledge and technologies. These achievements will definitely provide our students with the ability to develop their skills and to succeed in this field.”