Emiratis lured with clear career ladder at UAE exhibition

Climb the career ladder and start your own business say private sector employers at UAE careers fair in Dubai.

Emiratis attend the Careers UAE event at the World Trade Center in Dubai. Christopher Pike / The National

Private sector companies at a UAE careers fair are trying to lure Emirati recruits through the promise of a clear career ladder and the opportunity to learn new skills that could one day help them to start their own business.

Out of the 160 plus exhibitors at the Careers UAE taking place in Dubai, 90 are from the private sector.

“We bring our Emirati employees to the fair to attract more Emiratis, it encourages them to apply when they see someone like them,” said Meccia Abdulla, the Emiratisation business partner at Al-Futtaim Group, the agent for the Toyota and Ikea brands in the UAE, and one of the largest private sector employers in the country.

The company is advertising 100 jobs for Emiratis at the fair and already interest has been high.

“The career path in the private sector is different from government,” said Ms Abdulla. “The career ladder is already planned for you, but in government, it is a rotated job.”

Emiratis currently account for just 2 per cent of the 2.2 million jobs in the private sector, according to research from TCO Management Consulting. Jobs in the public sector are considered more secure and stable and provide greater prestige. At the fair, the Dubai government is advertising 1,600 jobs across 34 departments including the Land Department, Civil Defence and Dubai Customs.

Fatima Khaled Alsahoul, a 17-year old student at Al Ittihad Private School, highlighted the security and shorter working hours in the public sector as key factors in choosing a job. She was at the fair to decide topics to study at university.

“I am interning right now at DIFC, which is the private sector. I chose it because I knew I would get more skills there than in government, but for an actual job, I want to work in the public sector,” she said.

Standard Chartered was showcasing its reduced hour work scheme, where local employees can request to shift from full-time work to part-time to pursue education or enhance their professional and academic qualifications.

The jeweller Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons was at the fair to encourage and demonstrate jobs in after-sales and repair services.

“Usually you don’t find Emiratis doing skilled or manual labour, so today we are giving them an idea of what it means to be a watchmaker,” said Laith Ali Khadum, the company’s technical manager. “We are targeting the young people to get them interested. The private sector has more potential to teach something new and improve skills. The private sector helps you to create your own business, this is one of the more important facts.”

Not all job seekers were set on finding work in the public sector.

“This is my first time at a Dubai careers fair – I’ve applied to every booth I can. The first thing I noticed was the private and semi-government organisations that we didn’t know about, so it is a nice opportunity to get to know about these companies,” said Shaikha Al Dhahri, who currently works in the banking sector and is looking for a new job.”

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