Smartphone app gives labourers incentives to learn with rewards of food and credit for calls to home
Watching workers on their phones talking to their families or listening to music stations was the root of an idea to send simple literacy and educational material to labourers.
Since the Smart Labour mobile phone application won an Expo Live grant this year, more than 13,000 blue-collar workers have downloaded the app after word spread in Dubai camps and a taxi company signed on.
Abu Muadh, its creator, also plans to link the app to rewards such as food and phone credit so UAE companies and residents can encourage learning initiatives by labourers.
“My mission is to use the phone to make life easier for them,” Mr Muadh said. “There are 2.2 million blue-collar workers in the UAE and most live far away from the digital world. They are connected only for entertainment and to talk to their families.
“I want workers to be able to use technology in a smart city. The root cause of all problems is lack of education. Language skills are critical to communicate with supervisors.
“We are first focusing on linguistic and life skills and once we have them engaged, we look at safety and health.”
For the moment, those lessons come in basic English and Arabic videos, but there are plans to expand to commonly spoken Indian languages such as Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali.
Apart from teaching them short sentences to introduce themselves and explain the job they do, the videos provide practical information on names, colours, shapes of vegetables, fruit and food useful to workers in the hospitality sector.
Mr Muadh has bigger ambitions to motivate workers to speak up within their company.
“Engagement is important,” he said. “They are seen as workers. People look at them as doers not thinkers. They don’t contribute with ideas. This is what I want to change.
“Whether they are plumbers, carpenters, electricians, drivers or construction workers, they can speak in their own language and provide suggestions. Companies could benefit by listening in to what their workers are saying.”
The app is also being used by drivers to learn safety information, eliminating the need to attend training sessions in office.
Mr Muadh is out to sweeten the deal so companies and residents can reward workers with vouchers for food, shopping and phone credit to call home.
As part of a pilot with a few restaurants, a resident can buy a meal and the labourer will receive a code number on their phone so they can pick up the food from the restaurant.
“Apart from the learning aspect, the community is keen to do something for workers,” Mr Muadh said. “We are soon going to have options where you can log in to buy food or data for a labourer.
Videos provide practical information on names, colours and shapes of vegetables, fruit and food
“The worker shows his phone instead of putting out his hand or standing in line for donations or food.”
Administration assistant Abdul Qader works with Mr Muadh teaching others to install the app.
“I understand English but if
you asked me a question earlier, I could not answer,” said Mr Qader, who works with a security company. “I could not speak in English.
“Now I see videos on how to speak. I also show it to my friends who want to learn. To be better in your job you need full English to go up in life.”
Mr Muadh said the guidance he received from the Expo Live was more essential than the US$100,000 (Dh367,000) grant.
“The Expo validated our concept, showed that it has potential,” he said. “Experts have looked at our plans. I have much more confidence now.”
Mr Muadh runs a software company but is now focused on social targets.
“The Government is talking about a smart city and happiness,” he said. “A smart city needs smart labour, that is our key message. These guys are right under our nose and if you put in the effort, the impact will be big. We want workers to benefit from being in a smart city.”