Internships in UAE can bridge the gap between public and private sectors

Too few Emiratis enter the private sector after graduation. Those who do struggle to adapt to different cultural and workplace norms. A solution, writes Peter Hatherley-Greene, is for them to experience the world of work first-hand

Nuclear technology major student Fahad Ahmed Mohammed, centre, talks to a fellow classmate after their first physics class at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. The transition from education to work canShow more

In the early evening of January 25, 181 internship positions in the UAE were offered on a newly-launched internship website. Within the region, 240 jobs were available, with business development and sales in first place (20 per cent) followed by marketing and public relations (16 per cent), and accounting and finance (13 per cent).

Apparently, there are more than 75,000 pre-screened registered interns waiting to be placed.

An internship is a position for a student or trainee who works in an organisation, sometimes without pay, to gain work experience or sometimes to satisfy requirements for a qualification.

Two impressions stand out as I viewed this website – first, 181 positions being offered in the UAE is a very small drop in the ocean of employment opportunities required to accommodate the many thousands of graduates from both federal and private universities each year.

Second, the types of jobs being offered lie within a very narrow range of career pathways focused primarily on business, marketing and finance (almost half of all jobs). There was one position labelled education.

And so it raises an important question: is that all we do here in the UAE?

Recently, I tried to assist a young man starting his business studies degree at UAE University in Al Ain. We had met when I conducted a workshop during Innovation Week last October. Several weeks later, he contacted me to ask my help to review his CV and to suggest a few companies that might be interested in offering him an internship.

After updating his CV, I sent it to two major companies in banking and finance with whom I had had previous contact.

Two weeks later, I had still not received a reply, which appears to be a commonplace work practice – simply ignore emails if they don’t immediately contribute to profit or “the mission”.

I wrote a reminder email to both companies, shaming them for their lack of respect for this young man and demanding, at the very least, that they acknowledge receipt of the email and his CV.

The young man rang me up a day later and told me he had received a telephone call from one of the companies, wishing him good luck for his future endeavours but adding there were no places available for him.

What am I to make of all of this? Let’s start with the UAE private sector. They are given a unique and privileged position within the economy, unencumbered by taxation, assisted in free zones with utilities relief, and given access to relatively cheap and tightly controlled ­labour.

With Emirati employee penetration still less than 1 per cent, the private sector continues to rely primarily on expat workers. Potential Emirati recruits into this sector face myriad obstacles, ranging from culture shock to mismatched expectations on both sides.

As I and others have described in previous articles and research, locally-trained Emiratis find the entire experience of working in the private sector to be difficult, with more than 90 per cent leaving within their first year.

Emiratis trained and educated overseas in western colleges and universities appear to fare much better in making a successful transition from their lives centred around family, language, religion and community to a new workplace culture based on foreign values and beliefs.

I contend that there should be greater demands and expectations placed upon the private sector in terms of offering a critical number of internships and job-shadowing placements exclusively for Emirati jobseekers.

In addition to these offerings, all companies must learn to adjust their orientation, onboarding and supervisory management of Emirati recruits to reflect a heavier weighting of local values, beliefs and behaviours.

It is well-known that most people leave a job because of their poor relationship with the manager – spending time training expat managers to more effectively and sensitively manage Emirati recruits seems to me to be a worthwhile investment for everyone.

Now let’s look at the universities and high schools. There appears to be a strong misalignment between higher education courses of study and the needs of the economy. Universities are not offering the range of career courses to create a diversified economy based upon a growing segment of Emirati workers.

Since the early 1970s and 1980s, technocratic courses have dominated the offerings from regional universities in the Gulf. That must come to an end – they are no longer required, as society and the economy have developed, matured and moved on.

Should the country encourage more high school graduates who are generalists, who can flexibly, capably and quickly be trained in a variety of jobs with diverse skills? Or should it continue to focus on graduating specialists in the narrow technocratic fields of business, marketing and finance?

There is a lack of career guidance in high schools, which reflects the generally narrow range of higher education courses being offered to Emirati school leavers at federal universities and colleges. During my 16 years at a federal college of higher education, I met many male Emiratis who wanted to draw, design and work with their hands rather than graduate in business or finance.

Is it any wonder then that 65 per cent of Emirati school-leavers opt to enter safe, secure, low-accountability public sector positions rather than head into the maelstrom of the local private sector with all its difficulties, obstacles and cultural shocks?

And again, another question arises: who is influencing whom? The economy or the entire education system? Who should be reacting to changing economic, social, regional and global circumstances?

Establishing a minimum number of internships should be a priority for all large private sector organisations given the current economic climate and the clear encouragement and instructions from the government. Why is the private sector in the UAE continuing to lag well behind its counterparts in the other Arabian Gulf countries? And how important would it be for a major company to establish itself as a role model in this area, to grab the huge gap currently left void?

While the new student work permit scheme is to be welcomed and key Emirati companies such as Emirates, Etihad Airways and Al Habtoor among many others continue to aggressively support Emiratisation efforts, especially internships, the writing is on the wall.

It is time the private sector started to give back time and resources to the country that has nurtured its success.

Dr Peter J Hatherley-Greene is director of learning at Emarise