Survey: Curricula out of sync with job market

EDUCATION SYSTEM NOT CREATING SKILLS EMPLOYERS NEED, IT SAYS

Three quarters of GCC employers feel the education system does not know what skills employers need, an Ernst & Young (EY) report released yesterday has found.

The report, which is titled ‘How will the GCC close the skills gap?’ also showed that there is a misalignment between the expectations of private sector employers and national students.

This is evident in the report, which found that while employers struggled to retain UAE nationals due to high salary expectations, these employers rank young people’s lack of work experience (53 per cent), communications skills (36 per cent), and required skills and qualifications (22 per cent) as further challenges to retention in the private sector.

In the UAE and Qatar, only one per cent of the private sector workforce is made up of citizens, making an increase of nationalisation in the GCC’s private sector an urgent issue.

A total of 1,000 students and 100 employers from across the GCC were surveyed last year to identify the challenges faced by private sector employers in hiring and retaining citizens and youth’s attitude towards employment. The study found that almost three-quarters of GCC students put salary packages at The report cited four key areas where the private sector education system and government can work together to bridge the gap between what the economy needs and the skills and attitudes that students currently learn:

Align curricula with employers’ needs. Provide career information. Develop workforce through experience and training. Encourage a culture of employment, innovation and entrepreneurship in cooperation with the private sector. the top of the list of what they consider very important in a job, followed by 59 per cent citing job security as very important.

EY’s survey of students and employers across the GCC also showed that, outside of Bahrain, GCC students show an overwhelming preference for public sector jobs.

Will Cooper, partner and Mena Government Social Infrastructure Leader, EY, said this mindset has to change to stop the unemployment rate escalating in the medium to long term, and to enable the successful diversification of the economy away from dependence on oil and gas revenues. “Only through collaboration between the private sector, educators, investors, employers and young people can governments be sure to transform its youth bulge into a demographic dividend. The education sector will need to adapt curricula and balance practical skills and academic knowledge relevant to the current and future job markets,” he said.

In the GCC, the growing skills gap is particularly urgent because youth unemployment is already high and public sector jobs’ social and financial incentives have reduced the motivation to develop private sector skills and the experience.

Emirati Ahmad Al Nuaimi, who works in a government department, said he chose the public sector over the private because it offered better pay and flexible timings. “I know that more Emiratis should join the private sector, but the public sector allows for faster growth and better pay. More should be done to make the private sector appealing.”

‘Encourage critical thinking’

As for the skill gap, Al Nuaimi agreed universities and schools are more focused on theory rather than practical teaching.

Emirati Asma Salem, who works in a bank, also believed that the education system in the UAE should be changed to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Asma believes that the curriculums should include courses that encourage critical thinking, public speaking and entrepreneurial skills.