More than 8,500 Emiratis receive career counselling before joining private sector

Sessions provided as part of a government scheme to provide guidance and coaching for job seekers

Rashed Abdulla Al Sumaity, associate at Galadari Advocates and Legal Consultants. The legal and banking professions have the highest Emiratisation in the private sector. Victor Besa / The National

More than 8,500 Emiratis have benefitted from career counselling to help them find roles within the private sector.

The counselling took place from January to May of this year, as part of a government scheme to bolster local employment in the private sector.

“The career counselling aims to enhance skills and competitiveness among UAE nationals, in line with labour market requirements,” said Ahmad Al Nasser, Assistant Undersecretary for National Human Resources Development with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

More than 4,250 Emiratis were part of personalised counselling programmes, focusing on securing a suitable job, developing personal competencies, writing up their CV, job interview skills and general guidance on the requirements of the private sector.

Another cluster of 3,300 Emiratis were involved in learning about how to develop personal and professional skills, career planning, job stability and competency development, as well as adapting to the workplace, time management and coping with stress.

There were group sessions involving 990 Emiratis which included a section on how to enjoy your work.

The counselling courses took place as almost 68,000 Emiratis are now employed in the country's private sector, according to figures released last month.

Those figures represented an increase of more than a third so far this year.

The same figures showed that 17,000 UAE citizens had joined the private sector.

The UAE has a plan in place to ensure 10 per cent of private sector employees are Emirati by the start of 2027.