The increasing number of young Emiratis entering the job market every year cannot just go to the public sector.
The government has played a magnificent role in starting the process of Emiratisation for several decades, but the private sector also needs to benefit from the skills of young Emiratis.
The obvious barriers to private sector Emiratisation need to be addressed. Both private and public sector should share roughly the same conditions, which means that pay scales, benefits, holidays, pensions should be similar.
In some countries, the private sector offers higher wages, but the public sector offers the security of long-term employment. In the UAE, the public sector offers higher wages, better benefits as well as the security of government service.
Employers need to prepare to welcome students into their work force. This can be difficult in a management culture that has worked exclusively with trained expatriates handpicked for each job, leaving no room for the graduate entrant who needs to be trained and nurtured. Employers also need to make the extra effort to go to colleges and universities and find willing and able students who can test the work environment through internships and trainee positions.
Colleges and universities need to be more flexible in working with the private sector so that employers are not put off by rigorous conditions imposed on taking interns. All over the world, there is a gap between academia and the work place, but the UAE’s institutions should work to narrow that gap rather than expand it.
The UAE has a talented and confident young generation that is only just starting to enter the job market. If job-specific training and skills are lacking in some areas, there is nonetheless a very encouraging work ethic that is permeating across the young population. Imaginative employers are already working out how to capitalise on this and the ones seeking to avoid Emirati employees will soon go out of business in the UAE of the future.
