ABU DHABI // Student enrolment at a vocational training centre has fallen by half after the expansion of federal university places, the institute's director has said. About 300 new students are expected to take up places at Abu Dhabi Vocational Education and Training Institute (Adveti) in the coming weeks, half the number who joined when the centre opened in 2007.
The dip follows the Government's decision to allow all qualified young people to enrol in a federal universities, including UAE University, Zayed University and the Higher Colleges of Technology, and increasing their funding, which allowed admissions to grow from 10,785 last year to 13,315 this year. In previous years, thousands of Emiratis were unable to attend federal universities because of insufficient funds.
Gary Pollock, the director of Adveti, said: "There are more funded places [at federal universities] and that could encourage students to study with them rather than taking up an option to study with us, which might have been the case prior to the changes being made." Nevertheless, Mr Pollock said he was "not at all" disappointed with this year's enrolment and added that he hoped the centre could have as many as 3,000 students four years from now.
In total, there are likely to be about 850 students when lessons start fully after Ramadan. "When the first graduates complete with us and take up employment, we're looking forward to that being a great advertisement for us," he added. Adveti was created by Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) and is open only to Emiratis. It offers diploma courses in subjects such as hotel management, IT, fashion design and finance.
The centre is run by New South Wales Technical and Further Education, part of the New South Wales Department of Education and Training in Australia, and courses are taught in English. Similar vocational training centres have opened this month in Al Ain and Madinat Zayed, both run by GTZ, a German company. @Email:dbardsley@thenational.ae
