State, Education, Jobs

Academic Abdullah Al Shaiba advises the setting up of a body to bridge the gap between industry and unemployed UAE national graduates.

Over past the three weeks, I discussed the issue of higher education from three different perspectives:

- The UAE government and its efforts to help national graduates get various jobs in the private sector.

- The tertiary education institutions and their proposed role in preparing nationals for employment.

- The situation in the local labour market of the lack of good linking with academic institutions in the country.

Although graduates all over the world might believe that there must be jobs available for them after their training and education, it is also agreed that no government can control the economy to guarantee jobs.

Most societies want a healthy economy which is related to the strategies and programmes of education. Hence, the function of education is relative to preparing people for life, or for specific phases of life.

Education can contribute to economic development by preparing young graduates for employment, training middle managers so that they can be more effective, in upskilling the teacher or process worker, and in general helping the citizen play a more active role.

Countries view higher education in different ways.

Creating global citizens

In the UK, the government integrated both curriculum and learning experience in order to improve the relationship between the institutions and the labour market. It anticipated that this process would create a better economic return. The major objective of the policy was to create a workforce that can compete on the global level.

National systems established by the governments in order to organise the relationships between state, higher education institutions and employment are: the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) in the UK, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in Australia, and the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in South Africa.

A result-based system

South Africa supports an outcome-based method towards training and education.

In the UAE, there have been many official policies aiming at equipping graduates with the needed skills and training for employment.

However, this process faces many challenges because of the lack in connection between the government, education sector and industry.

The government has spent large amounts of money in two different paths:

1) To develop programmes at the public institutions;

2) To equip the graduates with the needed skills in order to match the requirements of work.

This should be implemented during programmes in all the institutions.

A NATIONAL SYSTEM TO LINK GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION AND LABOUR MARKET

"This new body could be called the National Vocational Standards (NVS). In order to assure the importance of creating this system, I conducted recently a comprehensive survey [right] at one of the institutions about preparing national graduates for employment in the UAE."
- Abdullah Al Shaiba

The survey question:

What would you think if the UAE adopted a policy of national vocational standards that aims to set up the appropriate conditions and qualifications the graduates would need to access and work effectively in the local labour market?

Results:

All respondents welcomed and encouraged establishing the NVS as a first and very important step.

They indicated that the new framework must set up collaboration between all stakeholders, such as secondary schools, tertiary education institutions, private and public sectors and relevant government ministries.

They also stressed the importance of regular revision of the standards in order to reflect the needs of the UAE industry.

Conclusion:

Establishing the NVS will help develop the relationship between government, institutions and the labour market for the first time in UAE.

It will also aim to achieve other goals such as:

- Setting up a strategic plan which will integrate three major factors - emiratisation; preparing national graduates for work; and the policies of the private sector in employing graduates.

- Consolidate the education budgets.

- Improve the environment of education

- Help identify the skills and knowledge needed for young nationals to effectively compete in the labour market.