Having a degree in one subject might not be enough to join the UAE workforce in the coming years, group chief executive of Gems Education has said.
Those with skills in a variety of areas will be best-placed to thrive, as the demands on young people entering the workplace will be different from before, Dino Varkey told The National.
There will also be an increase in the number of pupils being recruited by companies directly from high school, rather than from university, he predicted.
“The biggest thing that our schools can do is make sure that we're exposing our students to the breadth of curriculum, that we're igniting that curiosity and passion in a particular subject area,” said Mr Varkey.
“The nature of the world is changing so fast that I don't think it's going to be sufficient for a person to just say ‘I've got an engineering foundation’, nor ‘I'm a humanities major.’ To be really successful in this world, I think you're going to need an effective combination between both of those aspects.”
Mr Varkey predicts the next step will be a focus on recruitment straight from school rather than university. He sees this potential early investment in pupils as giving them direct access to an increasingly competitive job market.
This week, Adnoc Technical Academy enrolled dozens of female students straight from school for the first time, as it looks to train more engineers and technicians, rather than relying on universities for its talent stream.
“The world's leading companies go to the world's leading universities to hire their best and brightest,” he said.
“We want to try to encourage them to get their best and brightest directly from school, so trying to do campus recruitment at high school rather than at university is probably the next step for us.”
Back to school
Mr Varkey was speaking to The National ahead of the school year, which begins on Monday.
It comes after significant disruption has been caused by the Iran war. Despite the challenges presented, Mr Varkey is upbeat about the future of the education sector in the UAE.
“We just had the most incredible, record-breaking academic results this last year despite the conflict,” he said.
Mr Varkey praised Gems teachers for their adaptability during the interruptions brought by the Iran war. The government ordered schools to shift to remote learning at the beginning of March.
Schools and nurseries across the Emirates began reopening their doors on April 20, albeit with strict safety rules in place.
“The conflict in the broader region has been interesting for us to manage, but teachers were remarkably resilient,” Mr Varkey said.
“They adapted without hesitation and leaders made incredible decisions with a calm conviction and capability. Learning continued and, frankly, that is the same theme that we're going to carry on into the new academic year.”
Schools are ready for an in-person return and parents should have nothing to worry about, with protocols remaining in place to ensure the safety of pupils, he added.
When UAE schools resumed in-person learning in April, campuses opened with enhanced safety measures, including mandatory “shelter-in-place” procedures and blue-taped safe zones in line with new nationwide safety regulations.
Safety measures also included strict campus access controls, additional staff training and the suspension of large social gatherings.
Looking to the future
As far as Mr Varkey is concerned, the education sector in the region will continue to grow, despite the disruption earlier in the year.
The National reported on Wednesday that more than 1,500 new teachers have joined the Gems Education network for the academic year ahead. The education group has increased its capacity to accommodate 5,000 more pupils than last year. The plan is to increase that number to 20,000 over the next three years.
“I would expect us to grow, albeit maybe not at the same rate as we did for the three years post-Covid. It's still a growth scenario for us,” Mr Varkey said.
