No resting ON ITS LAURELS

Meirc Training & Consulting is one of the most trusted training firms in the region, helping clients develop their human capital in a range of management and technical fields.

What has been the company’s role in enabling the shift toward investing in people as assets?

As a company, we do not entertain assignments just for the sake of it. Many times, we have declined sessions because we determined the client’s need was different from the service we offer. This has strengthened our relationship with companies and helped us maintain our client-centric focus. Our main accounts back in the 1960s used to be in oil and gas; we were the partners they could rely on. Building this client base over the decades, we have seen how people have developed in recent years. Many participants who attended Meirc’s courses years ago are now in senior positions.

“We believe in innovation; we push the envelope to stay at the top.”

Expanding on the oil and gas sector, how is the diversifying economy changing your portfolio of clients?

We have a diversified client base. Our main industries are energy, financial services, government, health, industrial, oil and gas, real estate, services, and telecoms. We have grown from mainly oil and gas in the 1960s to all other sectors as we have seen more demand for our services in many areas. Particularly, we are seeing demand in Saudi Arabia because of the transformation happening and we are working with several ministries. In geographical terms, outside the Middle East, we are active in Africa and Southeast Asia. The only real barrier to where we work is dangerous political situations. We will not operate in any country where there is a risk for our personnel as the safety of our consultants is of the greatest importance.

With the pace of change accelerating and the transformation toward a knowledge-based economy, what does innovation look like at Meirc?

Coming to Dubai was a great thing for Meirc because it pushed us to innovate. When I started with the company in the 1990s, we had a limited number of accounts that we grew organically. We later began venturing into areas outside of our expertise and expanding our offerings. For this, we had to attract the right talent ourselves. Because we are selective in our talent onboarding, we have a low turnover. We also recently ventured into technical hands-on training and expanded our offering by introducing specialized exam preparation courses for globally recognized finance and accounting professional qualifications like certified management accountant and certified public accountant. Additionally, we will soon start our online training programs. We already have the infrastructure built, and with this, the whole world will become our market. The fee structure will be slightly different, but we will reach everyone around the globe. In Meirc, we ask our trainers to continuously improve their knowledge by attending trainings as well to help us stay on top of trends and be proactive. We walk the talk.

Our slogan can be summed up as sustainable growth. Innovation is not without its risks, but we are taking calculated risks to ensure sustainable growth. Over the last 60 years, Meirc has never reduced its headcounts when the economy went down. We have seen many cycles. The last one was a few years ago, and we did not reduce our salaries or let anyone go. We believe in innovation; we push the envelope to stay at the top. We will not sit on our laurels and take it easy since we believe every day is a chance for improvement. Quality is the number-one area for improvement along with staff satisfaction. No improvement is made at the expense of staff satisfaction. We cannot afford to have anyone demotivated because a demotivated person will ruin the infrastructure. As more and more people realize the value in their human talent, we remain at the top of the game to provide enhanced quality and services to our clients. ✖

The University of Birmingham is the first UK Russell Group university to establish a campus in the UAE and the first top-100-ranked institution to open in Dubai. As a global university with a civic outlook, the University of Birmingham is committed to playing its part in supporting the UAE as we drive economic progress through knowledge and innovation, whilst contributing to the development of a growing international education hub in Dubai. Our commitment to the region is perhaps best demonstrated by work underway to create a purpose-built, 50,000-sqm campus in Academic City. Set to be completed in 2021, it is designed to encourage collaboration across all academic disciplines, with flexible learning spaces and formal teaching spaces ensuring teaching and research can work in tandem to benefit students and the wider society. There will be a 300-seat lecture theater, a similarly sized auditorium, and three laboratories accommodating 200 students, along with seminar and tutorial rooms.

DAVID EASTWOOD How did you decide to enter Dubai’s higher education landscape?

The University of Birmingham is a global university. We have been delivering education internationally for many years, particularly in China and Singapore, and have welcomed international students to our UK campus since we were founded in 1900. While our primary competitive base is in the UK, we are increasingly looking at our global competitiveness when developing our academic mission. The establishment of our first large-scale and fully rounded university campus—teaching and research—in Dubai cements this global ambition. As a research-intensive university, the volume, scale, and level of our research means we can contribute to advancing knowledge on big global challenges whilst enhancing our reputation, improving our metrics, and continuing to compete in a global landscape.

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We are 100% owned and managed by the University of Birmingham. This offers us a level of autonomy over the academic mission and the student experience that we create that we would not have if we had gone with a partner. It also gives our stakeholders confidence that they are dealing with the University of Birmingham and not a franchise partner. Second to that is our research focus. The University of Birmingham is renowned for research excellence. Since being founded in 1900, 11 Nobel Prize recipients have walked through our doors, five of them after 2001. Our commitment to research forms the foundation of everything we do. Finally, there is the quality of our educational offering. We were clear when setting up our Dubai campus that we would not compromise on quality. For this reason, the standard entry criteria for the two campuses are the same. We teach the same programs, with the same modules. Often, it is the same academics teaching on both sites. This is important to maintain the credibility of our offer. ✖

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