Omani Journalists Association honours 23 for English language training

MUSCAT: Twenty-three people who completed the fourth level of an English language training course, were honoured by the Omani Journalists Association (OJA). The training was provided by the association in collaboration with the English Language Centre at the Higher College of Technology.
The ceremony was held at OJA’s headquarters at Airport Heights, in the presence of Mona bint Salem Al Jerdaniah, undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour for Vocational Education and Training.
Al Jerdaniah honoured the members, who completed the fourth level and a course on media writing in English during the ceremony. The training course is provided annually as part of OJA’s plan to develop its members’ skills in the English language that are essential to their media work.
On the occasion, Ali bin Rashid Al Matani, OJA’s board member and the head of the Training Committee at the association gave a speech, where he said: “The persons who completed this training course will now qualify as OJA’s members in English, and this number has reached 30 trainees, since the start of training programme three years ago.”
“The association is very proud of the members, who have managed to develop their speaking and writing skills in English through the training course. The programme has contributed significantly for encouraging mass media people to learn English. This is one of the objectives sought by OJA,” he added.
Al Matani further stated, “The association has sent five members, who completed the training course in scholarships to the United States, Australia and Britain to continue their studies in English for an additional period of three months. This step has significantly contributed to promoting their levels in English.”
Following this, Al Jerdaniah distributed the certificates and gifts among the graduates.
Hind Zahran, lecturer of English at the Higher College of Technology expressed her happiness on the graduation of the third batch of OJA’s members.
She said the courses were provided for trainees in specialized English in three batches. Every batch graduated after completing one academic year in the English Language Study Programme.