Career guidance in Qatar from momentum to a coherent System
A conversation with career guidance expert Dr. Hamda Al-Naimi
Over the past two decades, Qatar has worked to align its education and labor systems more closely with the Qatar National Vision 2030. Along the way, career guidance has emerged as the practical bridge connecting the Vision’s human, social, economic, and environmental pillars, where strategy and policy meet delivery.
Since 2015, Qatar Career Development Center (QCDC) has played a convening role, launching dialogue platforms and coordinating efforts across ministries, universities, and employers. The “Career Guidance Stakeholders Meeting”, held in 2018 and again in 2022, helped cement partnerships and laid the groundwork for a national, integrated framework.
In this interview for Career Guide, we look at that journey through the lens of one of the field’s leading voices: Dr. Hamda Hamad Al-Naimi, a career guidance and development expert. We discuss the progress Qatar has made, what still needs to change, and the practical steps practitioners and decision-makers can take to professionalize the field and scale its impact.
A Milestone for the Region
In May 2025, Dr. Al-Naimi became the first career counselor in the Gulf region to earn the National Career Development Association’s (NCDA) Facilitating Career Development (FCD) Master Trainer credential.
The designation enables her to prepare and certify FCD instructors, who in turn train practitioners to help individuals plan, choose, and advance along their career paths. This achievement is one more step in a record of service that spans collaboration with major public and educational institutions in Qatar, including nearly three years at QCDC as Senior Career Development Specialist.
A Turning Point
Dr. Al-Naimi did not set out to become a career counselor. She began as a high-school mathematics teacher after earning a B.Ed. from Qatar University, followed by a master’s degree in secondary education and teaching from Ohio University in the United States.
At the time, a clear gap had opened between the outcomes of independent secondary schools and the admission requirements of Education City universities. In response, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education introduced academic advising in schools, and the school principal asked her to lead the effort.
“One year in that role changed the way I saw my purpose,” she recalls. “Teaching advanced math to students who had no clear sense of what they wanted to study or who they hoped to become felt like putting the cart before the horse. The new vantage point gave me a deeper understanding of students’ needs. I saw a real deficit in career decision-making. Guidance had to come before instruction.”
Graduates of the FCD program may pursue two international credentials: NCDA’s Certified Career Services Provider (CCSP) and the Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) from the Center for Credentialing & Education.
Determined to build a stronger academic foundation, she pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Reading in the U.K., specializing in higher education career guidance. Her dissertation examined how Qatari 12th-graders make educational and career choices—what influences them and why—based on a year-long field study in two public secondary schools, one for girls and one for boys.
What the Research Shows
The study found that parents and older peers exert the strongest influence on students’ academic and career decisions. For students who were undecided or hesitant, paternal pressure stood out as the most decisive factor. The research recommended intentionally involving parents and older peers in school-based career guidance and raising families’ awareness of their pivotal role.
Almost eight years later, Dr. Al-Naimi still sees fathers as the primary influence; sometimes for the better, by supporting realistic choices, and sometimes to students’ detriment, by pushing beyond their abilities or limiting ambitions due to cultural or social constraints.
Even so, she detects a positive shift: “Students’ decisions have improved, better aligned with their abilities and with labor-market needs. In my view, that is largely because scholarship platforms now publish clearer, more accessible labor-market information. Interestingly, that information has shaped parents’ thinking even more than students.”
From Momentum to System
For Dr. Al-Naimi, empowering career guidance is the most reliable way to create sustainable change, helping students choose pathways that fit their aptitudes and ambitions while also serving the country’s long-term economic diversification. She believes Qatar has made meaningful progress in recent years through the efforts of ministries, institutions, and universities.
However, turning that progress into a durable impact requires one unified, coherent national framework. “There are good actors everywhere, but if we are serious about elevating career guidance in Qatar, we need a clear coordinating body, whether a unit reporting to the Cabinet or a professional association, to bring every partner to the same table.”
Her message resonates across audiences—students, parents, employers, and policymakers alike. Career guidance must be placed where its strategic value is recognized as a mechanism that steers Qatar’s workforce toward national goals. She also urges learning from peers across the GCC, noting Saudi Arabia’s “rapid advances in a short time,” while emphasizing that Qatar has been a regional pioneer in institutionalizing the field. However, “exchange accelerates institutional learning,” she argues.
Standards, Licensing, and Public Trust
Professionalization is the next frontier. Dr. Al-Naimi encourages academic advisors and career development practitioners to pursue accredited learning pathways and international credentials as a matter of routine professional development.
Just as important, she calls for a national reference authority to license practitioners, set standards of practice, monitor performance, and regulate service delivery: “We must ensure that those advising our young people are authorized and equipped with the competencies, knowledge, and tools the job demands. This protects families from unqualified providers and builds public confidence in the profession.”
Some argue that international models of career guidance don’t translate well to Gulf societies. Dr. Al-Naimi disagrees. Empowering people to become productive contributors is a universal core purpose, she says, and adaptation is both possible and necessary.
“In the United States, you might see these practices applied first in complex cases, supporting individuals re-entering society after incarceration, for example. In our context, we begin from a different starting point: students who simply need direction to chart a path. With thoughtful cultural and institutional adaptation, global best practices work here.”
The AI Question
Artificial intelligence will have a certain and growing impact on guidance and advising, yet it will never replace the human connection between counselor and student. Dr. Al-Naimi advocates for practical, cautious adoption.
“AI can be a powerful tool, but it should streamline the counselor’s work, not do it for them. Practitioners must understand AI’s errors, biases, and limitations and safeguard student data. Professional judgment, grounded in training and experience, must have the final word.” Given the rapid evolution of AI, she urges continuous monitoring and research to harness its benefits responsibly.
Key to Career Success
Dr. Al-Naimi closes with advice for anyone seeking progress in their own career: “Build yourself honestly and deliberately. Start with a candid self-assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. Close the gaps. Strengthen both your technical and life skills: time management, problem-solving, and communication. Today, these are non-negotiable for a successful career. They help you execute and overcome challenges that technical skills alone can’t solve.”
“Make lifelong learning your default. A graduate degree without the will to keep updating and sharpening your skills quickly loses its value and limits your ability to keep pace with a changing field,” she concludes.
