Private sector eager to hire Emiratis at Careers UAE

Total number of vacancies at this year's Careers UAE event could run into the thousands.

Private-sector recruiters will form the majority of exhibitors at this year’s Careers UAE event, suggesting that companies are beginning to respond to the Government’s call to hire more Emiratis.

More than 500 positions across the private and public sectors are already being advertised through the jobs website for the three-day event, which starts on Tuesday. But organisers say the total number of available vacancies could run to several thousand.

Ninety of the more than 160 exhibitors will be private-sector businesses, up by 28.5 per cent from last year. Of the roughly 150 exhibitors last year, 70 – less than half – were from the private sector.

“The Government participation is always strong, but this year the private-sector participation has gone up,” said Maitha Al Raisi, the group sales manager at the Dubai World Trade Centre, the organiser.

Held every year, the exhibition has become a fixture on the recruitment calendar for the government and state-linked companies, helping them identify talented Emiratis fresh from university and high school. But competition is likely to intensify from the private sector this year. Multinationals including the banks HSBC and Standard Chartered, the professional services company PwC and the conglomerates Alstom and Serco are among those scouring for talent.

Focus on Emiratisation in the private sector has sharpened since Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the UAE, in January laid down the gauntlet for private-sector companies to raise their employment of Emiratis. Announcing the national agenda for the next seven years, Sheikh Mohammed said the Government intended to double the target for the number of nationals employed in the private sector and said new measures would be imposed to raise Emiratisation numbers. It followed his labelling of last year as the official year of Emiratisation.

“Most of the UAE’s top employers whom we liaise with on a daily basis are already actively mobilised to source, attract and retain national talent across career levels and job roles, and this initiative should serve in effect to give their nationalisation targets and activities extra impetus, momentum, direction and drive,” said Suhail Masri, the vice president of sales at the jobs website Bayt.com.

Emiratis occupy less than 2 per cent of the 2.2 million jobs in the private sector, according to research from TCO Management Consulting. Nationals have traditionally shunned the private sector in favour of the perceived security and flexibility offered by Government roles.

But as the public sector matures and pressure builds on state finances, the need to break the pattern is becoming increasingly urgent.

For now, however, government-linked companies are likely to continue to draw the most interest from young Emiratis. Many are more likely to offer fast-track schemes for fresh graduates to rise to management level.

Etisalat, Emirates Group and Dubai Duty Free will be among those exhibiting at this year’s event for a 10th year.

“Emirati employees currently make up 80 per cent of all managerial positions in the company, and thanks to our various training programmes the percentage of Emirati employees has risen to 50 per cent and 36 per cent in middle management and technical positions, respectively,” said Younis Abdulaziz Al Nimr, the chief human resources officer of Etisalat UAE.

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