Getex Dubai, the Middle East's leading education fair, said it will showcase a much broader range of learning delivery tools as part of its strategy to support an ongoing initiative towards creating a technology-fluent education sector in the GCC.

The 21st edition of Getex Dubai, featuring four key segments - Student Recruitment, HRD & Training, Education Equipment and Technology 2009, and Careers 2009 - will be held from April 15 to 18 in Dubai.

The Education Equipment and Technology segment has been reformatted and retooled to facilitate a greater number of business-to-business activities among suppliers and education buyers, in response to an emerging trend of growing investments in technologies that enhance learning and increase student placement, said International Conferences & Exhibitions (IC&E), the organisers.

The segment will also include the '2009 Global Forum on Technology and Innovation in Teaching and Leading,' a gathering of regional and international educational experts and education researchers.

The forum will lay focus on special needs and the technology, equipment and skills for accommodating differently-abled learners.

Not for profit organizations like the Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs and the Dubai Community Health Centre are participating in the Getex Education Equipment & Technology segment to raise awareness of their efforts in including and mainstreaming people with special needs, Anselm Godinho, managing director (IC&E), said.

'We are clearly shifting towards a new era where technology plays an ever increasing role in the delivery of education to our students,' he noted.

'In this context, Getex Dubai will serve as the perfect platform to promote the widespread adoption of education technology in the region by offering a powerful business-to-business platform to access advanced learning tools and services from suppliers around the world,' he added.

Getex will also feature the 2009 Forum on HRD & Training for the Global Economy, an intensive conference program under the Getex HRD & Training segment that gathers HRD specialists, HR directors, CEOs, heads of training and other regional and international HR professionals to discuss emerging HRD strategies in the 21st century.

The Student Recruitment segment is one of the very first student recruitment platforms for international and regional universities, and is recognised as the region’s largest event that offers higher education options from around the world to students in the Middle East and beyond.

Getex is being held under the patronage of Sheikh Nahayan Bin Mubarak Al Nahayan, minister of higher education and scientific research.

It is a platform for education-oriented companies and institutions to present their academic and career-enhancing training programmes, education technologies, scholarships and consultancy services for students, parents, educators, professionals, corporate representatives and others who have a stake in the education sector.-TradeArabia News Service