New Dubai centre for Indian workers to offer Arabic lessons

Blue-collar workers in Dubai will soon have an upskilling centre, where they can learn new technical skills or refresh their soft skills, including ability to speak basic Arabic, Dr Aman Puri, the Consulate General of India in Dubai, announced on Tuesday.

V Muraleedharan, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, will inaugurate a new upskilling centre for blue-collar workers at the Delhi Private School (DPS) in Discovery Gardens, Dubai, on Wednesday, (January 20), the mission stated in a press release on Tuesday.

The Minister is expected to have an interactive session with at least 100 workers from adjoining companies in the area.He is also expected to launch a Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra (PBSK) mobile application (app) at the Indian Consulate on Thursday.

‘First-of-its-kind concept’

The first-of-its-kind centre is a collaborative effort between academia, industry experts, and human resources (HR) professionals, said Neeraj Agarwal, Consul – Press, Information, and Culture at the Consulate. The idea to roll out such a centre was first discussed by officials at the Indian Consulate on the 16th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (NRI Day) on January 9.

The Consulate had organised a workshop and brainstorming session on upskilling of blue-collar workers to meet with post-novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) challenges on January 12 and the event was attended by industry, academia, think-tank and Consulate officers.

Dr Puri had presided over the meeting.

“The upskilling centre is a project we’ve been working on for some time. The centre will focus on building soft and technical skills of blue-collar workers, including basic English language and Arabic skills and computer skills,” Agarwal toldKhaleej Times.

A community initiative

The centre is a community initiative, and workers will be offered these services free-of-cost. “Also, once they go back home, they would have developed new skills and have the opportunity to get better jobs,” he added. The Mission also hopes the skill centre will assist women workers at the Consulate’s shelter home awaiting repatriation back home.

“For now, three classrooms at the DPS school have been dedicated for this purpose. Even though the capacity of each classroom is for 40 students, each class will house up to 20 students because of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak,” he said. For starters, the pilot programme is also looking to educate plumbers with basic electrical skills.

Indian High School, Amity University, Sharjah Indian School and BITS Pilani are seeking to partner this brand-new programme, Agarwal added.

Dinesh Kothari, chairman of the DPS group of schools said, “Our instructors will teach basic Arabic, English, and elementary computer skills. If someone wants to look for alternative jobs, this can help them in the future.” Kothari said if the project grows, instructors can go to labour accommodations and give classes on-site.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

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• Abu Dhabi