Nannies need better childcare training

DUBAI // Nannies need better training to meet the demands of the job, and parents say they are struggling to find competent child minders.

Families said some candidates appeared to be untrained or not up to the task, with others smoking in front of children or leaving their charges while on duty.

Last week, it was announced that new recruitment centres overseen by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation would be set up to replace domestic agencies after concerns about the way many operate.

Often regarded as a privilege of the wealthy in the developed world, live-in nannies are often a necessity for many families in the Arabian Gulf area because they need two salaries to get by.

Diana, a young working mother from Istanbul, brought her 18-month-old daughter when she moved to Dubai but sent her home to live with her grandmother soon after.

She had to sack two nannies because they both smoked in front of her child and “disappeared for weird reasons”.

“In the end, I couldn’t find a good nanny,” Diana said. “My mother, who was helping us out in the interim, had to go back with her. If I find a nanny I will bring my child back.”

Insaf Bousserwel, 34, a Tunisian nursery teacher whose businessman husband regularly works abroad, decided to hire a nanny to help with her twins.

She found someone she felt she could trust, and then paid for her training at H&A Parental Guidance in Dubai.

“I want to provide the best care for my children and a well-trained nanny puts me at ease and makes me confident about who I’m leaving my children with,” Ms Bousserwel said. “I wanted a nanny who could be self-confident and would be able to do first aid. I also want a nanny who knows how to play with my children and make them learn at the same time.

“There are a lot of nannies in the UAE but they were not qualified enough and didn’t make me feel at ease. In the end I found a nanny that I trusted enough and had her trained to make her qualified enough as well. There are many options in Dubai to hire a nanny but the challenge is to get a good one.

“I could see at first that she didn’t interact enough or at least not the way I wanted with my children. Since she took this training, she is better with tantrums, fussy eating, small accidents, use of devices, and playing and interacting with my children.”

newsdesk@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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