The disruptive hand of technology is often portrayed as a fist ready to smash our careers to dust. Last year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Future of Jobs report stated that as many as five million jobs in 15 economies — including the GCC — could be rendered redundant by tech. Between them, two reports in Forbes and the Financial Times offered a list as diverse as travel and insurance agents, small parts manufacturers, financial advisors, car repair workers, architects and — gulp — journalists.
“The number of jobs being replaced by technology will represent the fourth industrial revolution,” Ali Matar, Head of LinkedIn Middle East, North Africa and Emerging Markets, tells GN Focus, quoting the WEF report. So what will be the closest thing to a future-proof job in the UAE?
“If we look at the current top skills in demand by employers in the UAE on LinkedIn, we will find that six out of ten jobs this year are tech-related,” says Matar.
The professional networking app’s list of top skills is topped by statistical analysis and data mining, with algorithm design (third on the list), web architecture and development framework (fourth) and SEO/SEM marketing (fifth) also in the top five.
“We are seeing a real demand among organisations across the Middle East for skilled [web] architects, developers, SysOps administrators and DevOps engineers,” Zubin Chagpar, Head of the Public Sector for Middle East and Africa at Amazon Web Services (AWS), tells GN Focus. His employer — a subsidiary of the American e-commerce titan that purchased Souq.com — develops cloud computing solutions on a platform for organisations large and small.
Transferable skills
Chagpar is keen to stress that much of the fear surrounding tech’s impact on employment is unfounded. “With any new technology comes the fear that an entire generation of workers will need to retrain and relearn everything they know,” he says. “This may have been the case for some technologies in the past but not for the cloud. Cloud technologies, such as AWS, are built on programming languages workers are [already] familiar with, such as Java, PHP, Ruby, Python and .NET, as well as operating systems people already know, such as Windows and Linux. This makes it easy for people to transfer existing skills into the new cloud world.”
As things become increasingly digitised, so too does the size of the industry charged with keeping them safe: cybersecurity.
New languages
What can today’s students do to become masters in the space tomorrow? “The first step to building technical cyber security skills is to become familiar with popular operating systems such as Unix, in addition to programming languages such as Unix Shell, Python and JavaScript,” says Haider Pasha, Chief Technology Officer, Emerging Markets at Symantec. “This helps one better [comprehend] the workings of a system/application, which is essential to understanding how to crack it/break it and eventually, mitigate the gaps.”
He suggests a range of languages students should consider learning before starting an undergraduate course:
“Having the ability to code in C and C++ is a de-facto standard in the programming world, but over the past few years Java has gained in popularity with Oracle claiming it’s used by more than nine million developers across the world, particularly for mobile applications and server-side environments,” he explains. He says Python is now a preferred choice for automation including 3D software applications and programming desktop tools, while SQL is important for relational database management systems. Following the shift to cloud computing, he also recommends that students familiarise themselves with the AWS Lambda code.
Smart hotels
With the Dubai Expo 2020 expected to attract up to 25 million visitors to the UAE, hospitality players will need to step up their game. “Rapid evolution in technology means greater guest expectations, and hoteliers in the UAE are increasingly embracing new technologies to adapt to changing customer demands,” says Xavier Mongin, Director, Middle East, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.
At the Emirates Institute of Hospitality Management, the company offers a module focused on tech in the industry. It includes “discussing trends such as the transition to cloud and its relation to business operations,
and discovering the latest apps that are changing the experience
for both hotel guests and employees”.
AWS also works with educational institutes, while offering its own certificate courses. “By incorporating new and collaborative ways of working into education, such as AWS Educate, we believe we will be able to grow the number of cloud specialists and create a generation of cloud native technology experts to help grow Middle Eastern economies,” explains Chagpar.
According to LinkedIn’s UAE Economic Graph report, civil engineering, business management and computer science are the leading degrees for undergraduates in the UAE, while industrial engineering, business management and computer science are the top spots for postgraduate students in the UAE. “While some skills expire every couple of years, the data we have strongly suggests that tech skills and skills in renewable energy will be needed in the UAE for years to come,” says Matar. Many of the opportunities in renewables will rise out of Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s sustainable city, as well as the various smart city projects under UAE Vision 2021.
Fine prints
Matar also sees 3D printing as a space ripe for growth in the country. The Economic Graph ranks the UAE at 16 among the top 20 countries with the most number of talent in 3D printing and design. “Sixty-four per cent of 3D printing and design skilled talent in the UAE are working for companies based in the country.”
The construction industry has played a big role in making the UAE a worldwide name on this front. “Not only does the construction industry allow the UAE to keep growing at a rapid pace, but it is also the key to creating many of the things that make the country famous, such as the Burj Khalifa, the Palm, and the World,” says Daniel Adkins, CEO of Global Institute Middle East, the Academic Partner of Curtin University Dubai. “To achieve these never before seen achievements, the construction industry in the UAE requires the latest technology in material science, architecture, and construction methods.”
Like Matar, Adkins is also excited about the potential for 3D printing. “To be prepared to work in 3D printing and design, a student would need a strong background in mathematics in order to enter into an engineering programme.”
However, he warns that academic learning isn’t enough to excel in this fast-growing field: “Only through hands-on experience will the student be able to prepare enough to succeed in an engineering programme and in industry. Given that mathematics instruction is freely available from Khan Academy and a home 3D printer can now be purchased for the cost of a high end laptop or smart phone, student have a tremendous opportunity to give themselves a head start.”
