According to official estimates, there are some 400,000 unemployed graduates in the six Gulf states. The number is expected to jump to 2 million in the next decade.
In the UAE alone, 100,000 Emiratis will be seeking employment, including 70,000 in Abu Dhabi, according to figures released by the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council. Meanwhile, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries continue to absorb hundreds of thousands of foreign workers every year in all sectors of the economy, in the private as well as public sector.
The education system in the GCC "has not addressed the challenge of matching programmes and higher education institutions to the needs of economic, social and cultural development," an education expert, Dr Ahmad Al Eisa, President of Al Yamamah University, Saudi Arabia, said at the annual conference of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) in Abu Dhabi.
Another expert, Dr Obaid Mohammad Al Saeedi, Dean of the Higher College of Technology in Oman, warned the growing unemployment among nationals in the Gulf poses "a real threat to socio-economic stability and balance".
Of late, most GCC states introduced an aggressive policy to nationalise the workforce. It is a good move to tackle the issue of unemployment and develop a home-made workforce infrastructure. But the private sector, which is the main target of this policy, is still unable to attract nationals because of the perception that graduates are not sufficiently trained to compete in an increasingly competitive job market in the Gulf.
There is an urgent need, thus, to align education and workforce requirements. This can be done by improving access to education and training for citizens, vocational and technical training institutes and designing policies to enhance work values.
The real wealth of the GCC is its human resources. The challenge is to tap into this rich resource by developing the skills of the local workforce.
