From classroom to careers
UAE's premium school educators discuss how they prime students for future careers
Shiny Davison, Principal, The Indian Academy, Dubai
Could you provide examples of careers where practical learning experiences are particularly valuable for future success?
Practical learning experiences are the cornerstone of a meaningful education. Internships, apprenticeships, and hands-on training provide invaluable preparation for students’ future careers across diverse sectors like healthcare, business, technology, and the skilled trades. Educators should foster partnerships with local employers and industry groups to create these experiential learning opportunities.
Our role is to plant the seeds and help students bloom into competent professionals.
Workplace exposure helps students apply academic knowledge, develop technical and soft skills, explore career interests, and build professional networks.
What strategies can educators implement to help students identify their interests, strengths and potential career paths from an early age?
To nurture our youth’s potential, educators must guide students in discovering their innate talents and interests from a young age. Annual career fairs, job shadowing, guest speakers, and aptitude tests help students identify promising career paths aligned with their strengths. Mentorship programmes that pair students with professionals enable meaningful connections.
Starting career counselling in the late primary years allows students to shape their studies accordingly. Our role is to plant the seeds and help students bloom into competent professionals.
Jeffrey Smith, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Advantages Middle East, Dubai
What strategies can educators implement to help students identify their interests, strengths and potential career paths from an early age?
Until mid-middle to high school (Year 8 and above), we need to get back to focusing on who a person is going to be, as opposed to what they’re going to be. Every day students are faced with teachable moments in areas such as integrity, resilience, empathy, teamwork, etc. Courses designed to fill in these current gaps supplemented by activities such as personality development and public speaking, will give students the self-awareness and confidence to pursue careers that align with their values and passions.
Demand for high quality, accredited online education is rising.
What demand have you noticed for online education in the UAE and how does Advantages Middle East help students acquire the right skills and competencies to succeed in their careers?
The demand for high quality, accredited online education has been steadily increasing for over a decade. We receive calls from aspiring elite athletes and performing artists who are looking for a self-paced or accelerated learning option so they can spend more time working on their craft. We also receive calls from students with learning disabilities, social anxiety, or medical issues that make traditional schools very challenging. Advantages Middle East, powered by Advantages School International, offers a bespoke education experience, often at a more affordable price.
Tim Wightman, Head of Key Stage 3, Durham School Dubai
Could you provide examples of sectors where practical learning experiences are particularly valuable for students’ future career success?
We are very excited to be preparing our Key stage 3 Durham Dubai students for IGCSE qualifications and our team of UK-trained secondary specialist teachers have developed exciting schemes of work that include practical learning experiences. These will prove particularly valuable in providing unique opportunities to develop knowledge and understanding of relevant career pathways. Amongst a plethora across the curriculum, specific examples of this include how our science department is developing the microbiologists, biomedical scientists, virologists and dieticians of the future through exciting lab-based practical lessons. Our humanities curriculum includes opportunities for site visits and evaluating the reliability of sources; with clear links to surveying and legal work. Our MFL planning makes connections with careers in the tourism sector as well as business and translation services.
Career guidance needs to be fully inclusive and diverse.
How can schools ensure that career guidance is inclusive and considers the diverse interest and backgrounds of students?
Staff here are very aware that our career guidance needs to be fully inclusive and diverse. We teach a varied curriculum, and all teachers pay close attention to how they can inspire and counsel our adults of the future. P.E teachers plan opportunities for student leadership and promote pathways towards sports science, fitness and sports journalism. In art and design and music, there is recognition that the creative industries are a growing employment sector in the UK and internationally and we encourage our young people to consider careers in all aspects of design, advertising, performance, theatre, film and TV.
Dr Asif Padela, Executive Principal, Al Yasat Private School
How can schools introduce career exploration to students at various grade levels, including primary and middle school and what are the age-appropriate methods and activities that schools can use to engage students in career exploration?
Students love to be engaged in creative and innovative ways. Schools can use this to their advantage by structured career explorations at all grade levels. At Al Yasat, we have found a number of creative ways to engage students in thinking about how they can connect school learning to future aspirations.
We need to be creative on how we engage young minds.
We embarked on expanding our course offerings in the middle school related to engineering and computer science. To make the experience more applicable our students entered an international competition to showcase their innovation and creativity with electrical vehicles. This exposure broadened students’ collaborative skills and helped them gain confidence in more formal settings. The experience extended further as students had an opportunity to connect with industry experts at the Electric Vehicle Innovation Summit hosted in Abu Dhabi.
Such experiences are also available at earlier stages of education. In the primary level, students at Al Yasat explore careers as part of their unit of study. For example, in English class, students write their own fiction-based novels. While doing so they create graphic art designs for covers, explore options for audiences, and have authors visiting their classrooms. This has led to some of our students becoming published authors and illustrators. When students start to see their peers in careers, they are better encouraged to reflect on their potential future goals.
College and career exposure is applicable at all levels of a student’s education. As educators we need to be creative on how we engage these young minds.
Michael Lummel, Principal, German International School Dubai (DISD)
How can schools introduce career exploration at various grade levels, including primary and middle school?
Career exploration has had a long tradition in German education. DISD is a living example of that tradition. All our 9th graders are trained to apply for internships. The actual internship, its report and the reflection of the experience afterwards are the key highlight of the school year.
Our educational strategy is to embed potential career paths in a variety of educational experiences from early on. Primary students visit firefighters at the fire department to learn about what it means to protect other people. While exploring topics like farming and the life in the hospital, students get the opportunity to listen to people who take care of others.
Our strategy is to embed potential career paths in a variety of experiences
What strategies can educators implement to help students identify their interests, strengths and potential career paths from an early age?
We take great pride in the fact that two of our recent graduates have been accepted at Germany’s top medical school, Charité in Berlin. We help children turn their childhood interests into successful career choices.
During our first PASCH exchange programme in July 2023, secondary II students visited German universities in Heidelberg and the automotive firm Audi to learn about international careers. While we promote the idea of a city as our classroom in our mission statement, at DISD, sometimes the world becomes our classroom. We often invite renowned German authors to our school. Cornelia Funke and Jörg Hilbert recently met our students and spoke about books, literature and writing. Our students also regularly publish their works, and participate in the prestigious international young authors´competition, Abra-Palabra. Who knows, maybe one of our budding authors will soon launch a career in writing.