Al Hamli: Provision of 30 thousand jobs for nationals in the private sector in 2019

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, announced the targeting of 30 thousand jobs for UAE nationals in the private sector during the current year, in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, announced the targeting of 30 thousand jobs for UAE nationals in the private sector during the current year, in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

He added that "this year will see the beginning of empowerment stage of nationals through four tracks, including the activation of Article 14 of the Law on regulating labor relations, direct employment, implementing the national employment policy and developing quality Emiratisation systems. This is in parallel with the continued implementation of initiatives to expedite the quality of Emiratisation in targeted economic sectors. The ministry implemented this with its partners last year, which provided 20,225 job opportunities that benefited 11,700 nationals.

This came in a press briefing held by His Excellency on Sunday at the Office of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation in Dubai during which he talked about the Emiratisation results for the year 2018 and the Emiratisation agenda that the Ministry will implement during the current year.

Emiratisation is a national priority

H.E. Nasser Bin Thani Al Hamli stressed that "Emiratisation is a national priority. The Government is seeking through a series of policies, initiatives and effective measures to create an attractive working environment for national cadres in the public and private sectors as well as working with various concerned entities to achieve the full potential of nationals in line with the job market needs.

He pointed out that the Ministry is operating under an integrated system aimed at enhancing nationals participation in the private sector workforce and contributing to preparing a generation of national experts capable of leading business sectors. This is achieved by ensuring a suitable and stable work environment, thus contributing to enhancing competitiveness and productivity.

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli said that "last year saw implementing the first stages of the new methodology adopted by the ministry to deal with the Emiratisation file, which is the stage of "accelerating quality Emiratisation and direct employment." The aim was to provide 15,000 jobs for nationals in targeted economic sectors. The ministry, with its partners regulating the work of these sectors, implemented 10 Emiratisation accelerators in these sectors namely aviation and transportation, real estate development, communications and technology, service centers, finance and banking, insurance, retail, tourism, as well as Emiratisation accelerators in Al Dhafra region and speeding up the employment of the national service personnel in the private sector."

Emiratisation Acceleration Outputs

"Over 100 direct employment open days have been organized in these sectors as a key track to achieving Emiratisation, in parallel with supporting direct employment processes between companies and nationals under ongoing strategic initiatives," he said.

He added "As part of its handling of the Emiratisation file, the Ministry has developed the criteria of the Emiratisation Club to provide more privileges to the club members and encourage them to employ Emiratis as well as the launch the Emiratisation Award and the launch of the 'Wajhni' smart program for field and summer training. Besides the launch of 'Emiratisation Forum 360' in cooperation with the Ministry of Education to educate students and young nationals about working in the private sector and highlight the advantages, it provides, along with professional guidance and empowerment with the skills and work needs required in the private sector.

He also pointed out the “remote working system, which won the best initiative supporting the gender balance. The system aims to create employment opportunities for national human resources, especially for female job seekers in remote areas which helps them find a balance between work and family and spares them the trouble of going back and forth to and from companies, especially the big ones, which are in the cities."

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli said that the initiatives and efforts exerted during the past year in the acceleration of Emiratisation and direct employment have achieved results exceeding the Emiratisation target. The Ministry, in collaboration with its partners, has provided 20,225 job opportunities, a substantial increase over 2017 which saw 6,862 job opportunity for nationals. "

“11,681 nationals benefited from the employment opportunities provided during the past year, of which 74% are registered with the ministry, noting that 98% of all who got the jobs are highly skilled. They are distributed at the first five professional levels, 58% for administrative positions, 15% specialists, 12% technicians and assistant specialists, 8% legislators, senior officials and managers and 5% in service and sales positions." He said.

He noted that 92% of all who got the jobs during the past year were concentrated in five value-added economic activities: financial and insurance at 49%, wholesale and retail at 14%, information and communications at 14%, real estate development at 12% and tourism and hospitality at 3%.

He stressed the importance of the career open days launched by the ministry during the past year in cooperation with its strategic partners and its role in the recruitment of nationals and their employment in the job that have been developed with the partners of the ministry, especially considering the method under which these days are managed through a smart system that includes four stages which the participating national go through. This includes the stage of registration followed by the stage of selecting three job opportunities from the vacancies offered and then the stage of professional guidance aimed at educating the job seeker about the importance of the sectors and jobs offered and making sure he/she is prepared for the job interview. Training follows this on job interview skills as an optional stage and then a job interview stage. "

Tamkeen Program

He explained that "the ministry is monitoring the cases of nationals who do not pass the job interviews and analyze the reasons behind this and thus the involvement of these nationals in the 'Tamkeen' program aimed at providing training and professional guidance so they can pass the job interviews later."

On the reasons why nationals don't pass interviews, the Minister pointed out that there are refusal reasons from the employers, where 53% of them were found to lack the skills and competence in those nationals, 25% for the weakness of the English language and 10% for lack of years of experience and 9% for not attending the interview. "

"There are reasons for rejecting employment opportunities by nationals themselves, where 32% of these reasons are for the lack of compatibility of the job site with their desire, 23% for unsuitable working hours, 22% not accepting the monthly salary and 13% for not being able to join on time and 10% not wanting to work on shifts." He added.

Commenting on programs to develop the skills of job seekers applied by the ministry, he pointed out that about 8,650 nationals benefited from the training programs, while about 18,000 and 235 citizens benefited from professional guidance programs organized by the ministry with its partners, including 'Tawteen 360 forum', which was held last year in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Al Ain.

Commenting on the ministry's plan for this year, H.E. Al Hamili explained that "In line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Ministry will continue to implement initiatives to accelerate Emiratisation and enable participation national human resources in the private sector where the ministry aims to provide at least 30 thousand jobs for nationals through four main tracks.

National Employment Policy

He pointed out that the first track is the implementation of the National Employment Policy, which is one of the outputs of the Education and Human Resources Council. This policy aims to attract and qualify the national capacities, enabling them to participate in the labor market, as well as building a knowledge economy with high productivity to achieve entrepreneurship, and promote the UAE's stature and competitiveness in international indexes.

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli said: "The future changes that the country will witness by the year 2031 will have a direct impact on the labor market to create new sectors and increasing the importance and role of many economic sectors considering the estimates showing the increasing numbers of nationals entering the labor market. National workforces the public and private sectors are expected to reach 610,000 nationals. "

"The national employment policy is the road map for the future of the labor market and the management of the Emiratisation file until 2031, in line with the vision of the future government. This policy is based on five themes: first, increasing the participation rate of nationals in the labor market, boosting Emiratisation in value-added economic sectors, and strategic functions and the jobs created by the modern strategies of the UAE Government in the areas of artificial intelligence, space, digital transactions (Blockchain) and advanced science." He added.

He pointed out that the second pillar of the national employment policy is to provide the national human resources with the skills required for the labor market, including the enhancement of lifelong learning programs so that all national forces take part in continuing education programs, retrain national human resources for future skills, design foundation programs and bridge the gap in skills and qualifying and training nationals to work in future jobs. The third pillar focuses on seeking to attract competencies and highly skillful people to enhance the proportion of knowledge and cultural diversity workers in the labor market.

"In the fourth pillar, we will target the promotion of entrepreneurship and self-employment by increasing the number of entrepreneurs and self-employed nationals and attracting investors from outside the country," he said.

His Excellency pointed out "The fifth pillar is to build a competitive and highly productive knowledge economy by focusing on boosting labor productivity and increasing the number of R & D workers in the country," he said.

Activation of Article 14

"The second track within the Emiratisation plan for the current year is the gradual activation of Article 14 of the Labor Relations Regulation Law, which stipulates that" the Labor Department may not approve the use of non-nationals until after ascertaining the validity of their records that there are no nationals registered in the Employment Department who are unemployed workers able to perform the required work ."

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli added that "this article is gradually being activated by targeting establishments employing 10 or more employees according to the first, second and third skill levels, as well as the average salaries paid to its employees ranging from 5 to 12 thousand dirhams or more. These salaries are based on the average salary prevailing in each Emirate, while 316 jobs were defined as priorities for employment by nationals according to the criteria that include that these jobs are within the first, second and third skill levels, as well as the suitability of these professions for nationals and their strategic importance."

According to the classification adopted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, the first professional level includes specialized professions, which require a high degree of scientific, technical and administrative skills with a university qualification as a minimum. The second skill level includes technical occupations that require the availability of "scientific and technical" skills and practical and supervisory skills. This level requires a qualification from a mid-level institute of two to three years after high school.

The third professional level includes vocational workers, which requires practical and vocational skills, covering the profession’s framework in an integrated manner with secondary school qualification, while the fourth level includes the workers in occupations that require the availability of practical and vocational skills related to the vocation being performed. An individual in that skill level requires an average of two years of preparation and training.

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli said, "A flexible and easy electronic mechanism has been developed to activate Article 14 where the targeted company applying for a work permit will choose a date for participation in an open day for employment. The aim is to hold job interviews with nationals nominated by the ministry to fill the job requested by the concerned institution "He said.

He explained that "the job vacancy will be closed if the company is selected for any of the nationals who were interviewed. In case of not choosing from job-seekers taking part in the open day for employment,  the establishment must clarify the reasons behind it which will be assessed and if approved, work permits will be approved to employ non-national. Nationals who are rejected three times engage in the 'Tamkeen' program, which contributes to qualifying him/her to boost employment opportunities for later.

Quality Emiratisation

He pointed out that the Ministry will work under the third track of the Emiratisation plan to continue to implement the initiative to accelerate the quality Emiratisation in new economic sectors in parallel with the development of quality Emiratisation systems in the economic sectors that have been targeted to accelerate Emiratisation, such as civil aviation, real estate development and communications sectors in consultation and partnership with the regulatory entities of the work of these sectors and companies operating in each of them."

"The development of quality Emiratisation systems aims to enable nationals to work in value-added jobs within the targeted economic sectors," he said.

Self-employment

H.E. Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli said that the ministry is close to completing a policy of self-employment, which is the fourth track of the Emiratisation plan for the current year.

"This policy enables nationals to earn a monthly income by working independently, which will create employment opportunities for them, especially in areas away from cities and employment of female nationals who do not want to commit to official times and places of work as well as instilling a culture of self-employment in nationals. It aims to correct the prevailing misconceptions associated with it and enhance cooperation and partnership between the public, civil and private sectors to provide self-employment opportunities.

"An electronic platform is being developed to link the nationals who run their own businesses, companies and various entities that have projects and need temporary support to perform tasks. This platform allows nationals to prepare their own accounts which enable companies to see them and choose those who would like to deal with them according to the policy of self-employment. "