40% of jobs to disappear from UAE in 10 years

Important aspect for graduates in the job market is to have practical, hands-on skills.

Narrowing down the skills gap in the UAE job market requires proper workforce planning and reforms in education, officials said during the sixth annual GOV HR Summit held in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
In the next 10 years, 40 per cent of the present jobs will disappear from the market, said Essa Al Mulla, chief of national workforce development, Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). "This is a trend we have seen for a while. There will be new jobs emerging in the market."
Mulla told Khaleej Times that a 10-year visionary planning is required to solve such skills gap in the labour market and keep up with the changes.
The strategy involves a shift in the education system, in order to equip nationals with the right technical skills for jobs that are needed in this day and age, he said.
"We are a mirror of what goes on after the student life. There is a skills gap between the education that the present and future generations receive and the market's needs. We are looking at the best solutions to this and it is not purely academic. It is also about changing mindsets, family involvement, and more. We need to focus on the requirements of the workforce today and 10 years later," he said.
The gap does form serious concerns, but it requires one simple solution, Mulla said.
"We call it 'workforce planning'. Instead of short-term plans, we will create a 10-year plan. In this way, we will be able to understand the skills gap, requirements from the market, and needs of the private and public sector. Based on these aspects, we can revisit our education system," Mulla said.
"We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We just need a better (education) system. We need to identify the right curriculum and skills. We need to move our normal education system to 70-30 or 60-40 model. We need to move education from the traditional way of teaching to more of vocational-educational. This can be within the school level or after that. We also need to involve families."

Unemployment, a red flag

This strategy, he said, will also address the issues of unemployment.
"Unemployment is a red flag and a serious issue," he said and cited data from Dubai Statistics Centre, where Dubai saw rise in unemployment among Emiratis at 3.4 per cent in 2017 from 2.9 per cent in 2016.
"Any city with less than 5 per cent of unemployment is doing well but we see this as a red flag. If we don't think about it seriously it (the rate) will increase in future. We need to narrow down the skills gap."
He noted that long-term workforce planning will streamline the job markets. "If we want to have a better future for our kids and nationals then we need this plan."

Reforms cited

Dr Mohamed Yousif Baniyas, director, Commission for Academic Accreditation, Ministry of Education, highlighted that the university curriculum should include all aspects of knowledge, practicum, and critical thinking.
"Important aspect for graduates in the job market is to have practical, hands-on skills. This should start from the beginning of their studies, from first year until they graduate. At the beginning it will be introduction to practical skills but the final year should be proper internship and assignments. For example those who are studying mathematics could do their practicum in an IT company, banks or schools as a teacher. This should apply to different fields of education. As the world is changing, critical thinking and problem solving is also important. Also having deep knowledge is also important. University should have skills development, industry should respond by creating jobs and also the government should introduce some legislation to generate jobs," Baniyas added.
Dr Khaled A. Mahdi, secretary-general, the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, Kuwait, said educational institutions need to keep up with the pace of changes in the labour market.
"The fourth industrial revolution is very different from the past. We expect lots of job losses and many positions will never be available. At least 30-40 per cent of present jobs will disappear. With the speed changes are taking place, many educational courses and programmes will soon become obsolete. Most educational courses are academic and theoretical. They aren't up for the labour market. A transformation is needed in the education sector."
More than 350 HR professionals are attending the GOV HR Summit 2018, the regions' biggest public sector HR knowledge-sharing platform.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com
 

• Abu Dhabi