3,400 Emiratis participate in Tawteen 360 Student Forum in Abu Dhabi

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) has announced that around 3,400 Emirati university and secondary school students participated in the Tawteen 360 Student Forum, which concluded on Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

The forum was organized by the MOHRE under the auspices of the Education and Human Resources Council and in co-operation with the Ministry of Education. During the forum, 17 awareness and motivation sessions were organised with the participation of 15 speakers and 45 training workshops by 32 trainers were held with the participation of 24 private companies and establishments. A number of success stories of Emirati cadres working in the private sector were reviewed during the 3-day forum.

The forum was organised as part of the MOHRE’s National Program for Career Guidance and Counselling with the aim of familiarizing students and young Emiratis with the importance of working in the private sector, said Ahmed Al Nasser, Assistant Undersecretary for Development of National Human Resources at MOHRE.

He explained that the forum included a package of innovative awareness and motivation activities aimed at highlighting the promising job benefits offered by private sector establishments to Emirati cadres as well as mentoring the Emiratis participating in the forum professionally and familiarizing them with the labor market needs in this important sector.

As part of the forum, a workshop was organised for academic advisors and professionals in educational institutions with the aim of familiarizing the participants with the jobs and job skills required to work in the private sector, he said, noting that similar workshops would be organized in future in co-ordination with all educational institutions.

Another workshop targeting parents of Emirati students was organised with the aim of bolstering their positive role in planning the career path of their children and identifying their children’s interests and the future labour market orientations.

During the forum, the students were given access to 650 internships and summer jobs offered by 20 companies while seven educational institutions offered various scholarships.

Meanwhile, the Emirati students took part in six major stations and tracks including the discovery of students’ professional abilities and tendencies station, where the students were subjected to an assessment of their professional tendencies and were given access to the professional planning hall, which familiarized them with the required tools and the most important keys for planning their future career.

Through the skill development station, the students were able to participate in interactive training workshops aimed at refining their skills, developing their competencies and preparing them for future jobs with the participation of a group of international companies. The students also took part in the ‘Tawteen Talks’ station where they learnt about the most important labor market updates as well as some inspiring and successful professional experiences by a group of people with distinguished success stories and the best practices in the private sector.

The self-employment station aimed at spreading the self-employment culture and motivating Emirati cadres to take self-employment as a vital career path through a number of interactive workshops. 

Through the Wajehni station, Emirati students were briefed on field and summer training opportunities at a number of major private companies, which offered 650 opportunities during the forum. They also met with officials from a number of private companies and establishments and were familiarized with the work environment in the private sector.

‘Wajehni’, a national field and summer training program available on both Apple Store and Google’s Play Store, is a unique channel of communication between students and educational institutions & private establishments to help students get suitable summer internship opportunities. 

According to the mechanism of work of this smart program, private sector establishments post the field internship opportunities available in them for students to register in these opportunities based on their fields of specialization and professional tendencies. The educational institutions follow up the students to know how many students have joined the field training and how many training hours they have received.

The students also participated in the ‘Future Station’, which highlighted the most important services offered by the MOHRE to job seekers such as employment services, training and skill development services and career guidance and counselling services.

Meanwhile, the MOHRE concluded two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Fujairah Charity Association (FCA) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) on the sidelines of the forum.

The MoUs were signed on behalf of the MOHRE by Ahmed Al Nasser, Assistant Undersecretary for Development of National Human Resources, Mohammed Ali Al Mulla Al Raisi, Vice Chairman of Fujairah Charity Association, and Bradley Boyson, SHRM Executive Director.

The MoU signed with FCA aims at enhancing joint co-operation in the field of supporting the initiatives for qualifying and employing Emiratis as well as self-employment initiatives in the Emirate of Fujairah. It also aims at co-ordinating efforts with respect to exchanging information and data on the emirate’s private sector labour market and the opportunities available for Emiratis. The MoU will increase student orientation opportunities and help qualify and employ job seekers from all the segments of Fujairah citizens.

The other MoU signed with SHRM aims at co-ordinating and exchanging experiences in human resources development areas as well as designing and implementing specialized research studies on development of national human resources and the future of employment in the UAE. It also aims at implementing special programs for empowering and employing Emiratis in the private sector.