Emirates Skills aims to attract locals to vocational pursuits

A platform to attract students into vocational careers, Emirates Skills had representatives from several industries.

Shamma Al Daheri from Al Ain displays her creations at Adnec during the Emirates Skills exhibition held under the programme by Abu Dhabi’s Vocational Education and Training Institute. Fatima Al MarzooShow more

ABU DHABI // Abu Dhabi’s Vocational Education and Training Institute (Adveti) is working to entice women to its diploma courses after a tough six years at this week’s Emirates Skills event – a platform for to attract school students into vocational careers.

The past two years, the institute’s Al Jahili Institute in Al Ain has had no students enrolled in its diploma course and has had to branch out to short courses for schoolchildren.

Shamma Al Daheri, 34, was one of the last batch of graduates two years ago.

“The girls don’t see a career in this and they want jobs in the Government sector. The girls who do this course are the ones who want to set up their own business or a shop of their own. It’s not only about the design side.”

Mrs Al Daheri, a mother of five who works as a librarian in the Secondary Technical School, said design offers her escapism and relaxation. It is her “passion”.

Sophie Wanny runs the course in Al Ain and said: “The students want to do the courses they see as getting them jobs in Government so they choose subjects like IT, human resources and engineering.

“It’s a challenge field to attract Emiratis to as they’re learning to sew, to design, to make patterns and it’s very hands-on work.”

Khalifa University, government entities such as the military, and even semi-government companies, such as Ferrari World, were on also on display.

Moza Al Mansouri, 28, received her diploma two years ago. For her, too, the classes were more a hobby than a career choice.

“I was already doing design myself and just wanted to be able to tailor things myself as I couldn’t really explain what I wanted to the tailors and they didn’t make it the way I wanted,” she said.

What is not helping the vocational programme is the lack of a design industry in the UAE. While it is seen as a retail fashion hub, there is no manufacturing side to back that up.

“There are no jobs in fashion,” said Ms Al Mansouri. “It means I’d do it as my own business which is what the local girls are doing, marketing through social media and through networking. It’s becoming very competitive but many don’t actually stay in it for long. Talent alone isn’t enough. They need to stay ahead of trends, have lines for each season and it’s as much about knowledge as talent.”

At the Emirates Skills event, Ferrari World was reaching out to school pupils to “groom” them for a future career in the theme park industry.

Showcasing their schools project Coaster Lab, which now has more than 1,000 pupils in Abu Dhabi learning about the physics behind theme parks within their science curriculums, the event was a chance to try to capture a bigger audience. Ferrari World would like the local talent to be the future of the UAE’s theme park industry.

“We want to show them what careers there are in the industry and it isn’t necessarily related to design but there’s customer service, retail, guest interactions, other roles they can take on within the theme parks,” said Einas Abou-Hatab, public relations and communications manager at Ferrari World.

“We want to groom a new generation which can lead the theme park industry and can take over from the people who have started Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.”