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Dewa wins top award

The authority has employed, trained and developed nationals through it highly distinguished methodological education programmes, while taking into consideration the facts of the labour market. The number of UAE national employees at the authority has now touched 644, with many of them occupying different positions in all sectors of the company.

Speaking about DEWA's strategic planning, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director of DEWA, said that learning and development was one of the authority's major focus areas. "It constitutes the cornerstone of the human resources development and the scientific basis for the emiratisation process," he pointed out.

The authority has, over the years, faced many challenges, the most important of which was the acute scarcity of national graduates specialised in the fields of electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as the huge competition in the labour market to attract them. The company also had to tackle the problem of honing the skills of new graduates with limited technical and administrative experiences.

The training budget at the authority has doubled over the years. About Dh2.7 million was allocated to the training budget during 2000, Dh3.49 million in 2001, Dh6.7 million in 2002, and Dh 7.9 in 2003.

"DEWA had to go forward with its own emiratisation strategy to realise the expectations of our judicious government. To realise this, DEWA allocated a huge budget towards continuous training and education and provided training tools such as training halls and centres to maximize benefits," Mr. Tayer noted.

He explained that the authority is moving in several directions to activate the emiratisation process and to exploit the full potential of the UAE national youth, as this is considered a remunerative investment in the long run.

The authority embraced the Electrical Engineering Diploma in cooperation with Higher College of Technology, Bachelor degree in Engineering in cooperation with Emirates University, and Higher Studies for its UAE national employees.

Mr. Al Tayer explained that DEWA set a strategy for attracting nationals and gave them the opportunity to take leading and senior positions. "This policy is divided into four components. The first component is polarization where DEWA targeted UAE national students' groups such as in schools and oriented them to selected the specialisation fields required by DEWA. We also approached universities and Higher Colleges of Technology students to participate in the annual Employment Exhibition for acquainting job seekers with work opportunities at the authority," he said.

The second component in the authority's strategy is habilitation through which the authority offers vocational training and development to UAE nationals, he explained, adding that the third component is replacement, which is implemented through the authority's present policy.

"The fourth component is retaining employees, which comprises several systems such as appreciation and awards, promotions and merit increments, overtime, meeting resigned employees, continuous development and improvement of work environment," Mr. Al Tayer observed.

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