A series of activities and speeches were held at three secondary schools in Al Wakra on 13 March 2018 to inform students about the UN Sustainability Goals, especially Sustainability Goal 4.

Dr. Hamda Hasan Al-Sulaiti, Secretary-General of Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, stressed the importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals particularly SDG4: "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all".  Dr. Hamda also highlighted the alignment in this area, between the global goals, the national goals and Qatar National Vision 2030.

Dr Rupert Maclean, Dr Hamda Hasan Al-Sulaiti and Mr Mansour Al-Buainain speaking with students

Mr Mansour Al-Buainain, Director of Al-Wakra Municipality presented on Al-Wakra’s membership of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and how the Municipality is working in partnership with schools to engage children in a number of “green” activities. The projects students worked on during Sustainability Week in November 2017 certainly demonstrated that young people were thinking about how to save water, reduce waste and produce food more sustainably for their city and their country.

Dr. Rupert Maclean, QAPCO Professional Chair of Vocational Studies and the UNESCO Chair of TVET and Sustainable Development, College of the North Atlantic – Qatar, spoke about the changing nature of work, including the impacts of the digital economy and artificial intelligence. He emphasized that while all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were important the most important was Sustainable Development Goal 4 about which he said “This is the Master Key”. He asked the students the purpose of a key. They replied: “To open doors”.  Dr. Maclean emphasized that a Master Key opens many doors and this is what SDG 4 does, especially in the area of future education and career pathways. He also spoke of the series of events held in Qatar last week to celebrate International Women’s Day and the vital multiple roles played by women in Qatar and internationally and how important it is to achieve gender equality and empower for all women and girls (UN SDG 5). He left the students with a message that vocational education and academic education can no longer work in silos since they are now increasingly interrelated, and ‘there is a need to build a bridge between academic and 'vocational learning'.

Dr. Maclean felt that it was a privilege to attend this event and view first-hand the rich Arab and Islamic culture, heritage and hospitality that was on display.