UAE-India partnership on skills

UAE and India launch strategic ties focused on skill development and mutual recognition of qualifications

Strategic move focused on skill development and mutual recognition of qualifications

Anew partnership between the UAE and India will enable the UAE to communicate with India the requirements of skills and their certification for Indian workers coming to the UAE.

Accordingly India can align its ambitious skill development programmes and certification procedures with the requirements of the UAE’s job market.

The UAE and India announced yesterday the launch of a new strategic partnership focused on skill development and mutual recognition of qualifications.

The partnership was launched at a forum in Dubai, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), supported by the UAE’s Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) and India’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, according to a WAM report.

The new partnership is expected to develop institutional framework of cooperation on labour and skill-related matters.

First step

Dr Omar Al Nuaimi, MOHRE Assistant UnderSecretary, said this is only the first step in terms of enhanced collaboration between the UAE and India.

“By strengthening trust in the quality of training and certification, and by requiring workers to be skilled and certified before their arrival, we can improve the skill mix in the labour market, leading to improved labour productivity for business. The skilling of workers is also likely to positively impact the wage structure here in the UAE, ensuring that wages increase and improving competition,” Al Nuaimi said.

Navdeep Suri, Indian Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News yesterday that the partnership will help India better understand the UAE’s requirements for skill certification for various skilled workers such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, beauticians and many others.

“India has such a large skill development programme. The idea is whether we can align some of our training programmes to meet the requirements of the UAE,” he said.

The envoy explained that a skilled worker such as a welder could get a certification from an Indian authority as exactly required by the UAE. This will enable the worker to get better wages by virtue of better skills [certified by the competent authority], Suri said.

He told WAM that both countries have agreed to work together to integrate India’s eMigrate system with the UAE’s labour e-platform and to facilitate skill development and employment of certified workforce in UAE. Integration of India’s eMigrate system with the UAEs labour e-platform will be a very important step to stop contract substitution and to ensure protection and welfare of Indian workers and will benefit both the countries as well, he said.

A strengthened Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the labour sector was signed during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UAE in February.

Centralised programme

Addressing the event, Dr K.P. Krishnan, Secretary, Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said: “Our goal in India is to increase the scale of skilling operations, as well as improving the quality of skills provision. The relationship between India and the UAE will be beneficial if we can provide the UAE labour market with its precise needs. We believe a centralised programme that is demand driven and meets the UAE’s requirements for certification frameworks is the answer. This event is vital to clearly identify the skill requirements of UAE employers.

Abdullah Hassan Al Muaini, Executive Director of Conformity Scheme Services at Abu Dhabi’s Quality and Conformity Council, said: “The council develops and oversees the occupational standards and conformity schemes that are relevant to Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE’s needs. To date, we have developed 70 occupational standards and launched 50 personnel conformity schemes. We plan to make our services available in the home countries of personnel who are seeking our certification services,” he said.