Abstract
There seems to be an increase in awareness of sustainable development and university outputs for the labor market. Recently, there has been a decreasing demand for an architectural technician specialisation in the Architectural Technical Diploma Program at the Community College of Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah. The present study aims to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the Architectural Technical Diploma Program at the Community College of Umm Al-Qura University (UQUD) and study international experiences of similar programs at three US colleges. This research further attempts to evaluate the study plan, compare it with other similar projects, and study the most important reasons that have led to low demand for the program and how to increase the market for the architecture diploma. The research framework for this study is based on a review of the literature. To obtain necessary background knowledge, this study began with a review of books, professional journals, conference papers, government publications, internet resources and other sources. Programmatic transformation and academic curricula development are essential since the university is keen to develop its educational programs to meet the needs and requirements of practices. The results depicted that the Architectural Technical Diploma plan at Umm Al-Qura University would be updated to include modern 3D architectural drawing tools such as Rhino, DesignBuilder, and EnergyPlus, as well as changes to the course syllabuses linked to computer use. It is also critical that a portion of the computer drawing courses include simple energy consumption estimates to assist students grasp the link between architectural design and building energy consumption.