There is also a well-being dividend. The World Health Organisation estimates that depression and anxiety cost the global economy about 12 billion working days and $1 trillion in lost productivity each year. This reinforces a simple truth: learning environments that foster community, inclusion, and mental well-being are essential to healthy, resilient societies. Supporting learning is therefore also a form of preventative health – one that strengthens both people and the organisations they are part of.

A shared path for a diverse nation

This lesson resonates particularly in the UAE, one of the most multicultural societies in the world. According to the International Labor Organisation, migrant workers make up over 80 percent of the population. In such a setting, education can be a unifying force – creating common ground between people who may otherwise live and work in separate worlds.

The country’s leadership has long championed knowledge and innovation as the foundations of national development. Community learning complements that vision by focusing on human connection: teaching and learning not only to improve skills, but to deepen understanding between people. When education is delivered with dignity and designed around expressed needs, it strengthens the social fabric as much as the economy.

Civic participation

Learning also encourages civic participation. People who engage in lifelong education are more likely to volunteer, mentor, or contribute ideas to community initiatives. They carry forward what they have learned – in their families, workplaces, and neighborhoods – helping to sustain a culture of curiosity and care. In this sense, learning becomes both a personal right and a shared responsibility.

The idea is simple: learning is not just preparation for work, but participation in society. It gives individuals agency, helps communities grow together, and creates opportunities for dialogue across boundaries of class, language, and nationality.

So here is my invitation. If you lead a company, school, hospital, or construction site, treat education and lifelong learning as community assets and business imperatives. Start small. Ask your workers what they most want to learn, in which languages, and at what times. Make space during the workday. Offer professional development hours. Open classes to mixed groups so that status lines blur and people discover each other as fellow learners.

This is what the UAE Year of Community looks like in practice. Its slogan, “Hand in Hand,” has tangible meaning. It is a timetable, a classroom, a shared notebook, and a conversation between neighbours who might never have met otherwise. If we do that faithfully, we will create not only stronger institutions here in the UAE, but also models of inclusion that resonate across our global networks.

Liria Gjidija, Special to Gulf News

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