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Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Glamorgan, 14-17 September 2005
Comparative and International Education SIG
Educational failure in the United Arab Emirates and the potential for growing discontent in a geo-politically important country
Dr John CameronSchool of Development Studies
University of East AngliaNorwich, UK
ABSTRACT
This research reports on five years of research engagement in the education and employment field in the United Arab Emirates, including both large scale survey and more ethnographic data. The Emirates are currently one of the most affluent countries on earth with a national population that has a strongly Arab and Islamic identity. This affluence came with an enormous windfall from oil export revenues in the 1970s. The culturally sanctioned, demographic response to this windfall had profound implications for the education system. But subsequent changes in the education system are failing to equip a whole generation of young people with the skills and attitudes to play a role in the booming private economy. These experiences are also highly gendered with young women constituting over three quarters of national students in higher education and dominating the unemployment statistics. Thus despite the appearance of a Dubai economic miracle, the research reveals reasons for national and global concern about the dysfunctionality of the education system in this geo-politically important country.
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Context
It is difficult to comprehend how lives have changed for UAE nationals in the past thirty years since the rise in oil price created instant affluence in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But affluence has come at a price and the associated costs have fallen heavily on education in terms of pressure of quantity and quality demands.
The pressure originally appeared as a quantity issue. There was an extraordinary demographic surge following the oil price rise for a representative sample from one of the Emirates, though there is reason to believe this was repeated across the whole of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Economically, people could now comfortably afford to have more children and culturally having more children was greatly valued. This surge of population has been moving through the education system for the past thirty years and is now breaking over the labour market.
The psycho-social implications of this process are as important as the economic. A generation of UAE nationals now face a large private sector labour market from which they are largely excluded. Even generous estimates show nationals accounting for only two percent of private sector employment.
The state of education in the United Arab Emirates
A strategic developmental objective recommended for UAE is to “develop a strategic vision and a policy package of intervention on promoting the entry and development of nationals in the private sector as wage employees and as entrepreneurs”. This must also involve the implicit corollary that such development must occur without a loss of well-being for the majority of nationals during and after the transition to a new pattern of functionings or patterns of activities using their labour time, energy and skill capababilities.
The existing pattern of nationals’ functionings, with its heavy emphasis on public sector employment (and for men service in the military and police) is presumably at least acceptable, and perhaps actively preferred by many nationals.
These preferences seem to be influencing school performance, especially for boys as indicated in the following tables. The first part of this paper will be especially concerned with boys as gender analysis suggests they arre failing to come through the education system to a level where high productivity entrepreneurship becomes a real possibility.
TABLE 1
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UAE STUDENT REGISTRATIONS IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY, RELIGIOUS AND VOCATIONAL/TECHNICAL SCHOOLS
YEAR UAE FEMALE STUDENTS IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS
UAE MALE STUDENTS IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS
MALE STUDENTS IN RELIGIOUS AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS
TOTAL MALE STUDENTS IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY, RELIGIOUS AND VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
94/5 I6459 10158 1536 11694
95/6 18085 11174 1702 12876
96/7 N/C N/C N/C N/C
97/8 21428 13560 2014 15574
98/9 22089 14477 1983 16460
YEAR FEMALE/MALE RATIO ANNUAL GROWTH RATE IN NUMBER OF MALE STUDENTS
94/5 1.41 -95/6 1.40 10.196/7 N/C 10.5 (ESTIMATED),97/8 1.38 9.5 (ESTIMATED)98/9 1.34 5.7
N/C: Not computed – missing data
Table 1 suggests some continuing improvement in the registration of boys in secondary education both in absolute terms and in relation to girls (virtually all of whom complete secondary schooling), but the figures do not indicate a major breakthrough in boys’ education since the mid-1990s. The problems of commitment of a significant minority of boys to formal education seem to be persisting.
This conclusion may need to be qualified by the statistics for private schools if large numbers of UAE national boys are being sent to private schools for secondary schooling. Total enrolment figures for private schools were rising rapidly in the 1990s – an increase of over fifty percent between 1992/3 and 1998/9. The MoE estimated that enrolment of all nationalities and both genders in private schools totaled 225,898 in 1998/9 for all grades – that is two thirds of the total for MoE school pupils.
TABLE 2
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SECONDARY SCHOOLS EXAMINATION RESULTS
YEAR FEMALE PASSED
% FEMALE FAILED
MALE PASSED
% MALE FAILED
94/5 18929 10.6 12976 18.495/6 23493 9.1 17596 17.396/7 N/C N/C N/C N/C97/8 26075 8.7 17724 16.398/9 31253 7.2 23077 14.3
The secondary school examination results suggest improvement (see Table 2), with substantial increases in numbers of girls and boys sitting exams and in their pass rates, but still boys are significantly below girls in both statistics in 1998/9. The pool of UAE nationals with successful secondary education performance is increasing rapidly. While the quantity issue in education is still important for boys, the issue of quality of education is now becoming more significant for girls and boys. The development of skills attractive to the private sector depends critically on the quality of education as it demands a much more interactive, sensitive approach and up-to-date resources than conventional rote learning. Realism suggests that the route for young nationals into acceptable work in the private sector must be through higher education and the public sector and the remainder of this paper will explore this route.
Higher education and public sector employment
This paper now reflects upon the development of higher education in the United Arab Emirates for UAE nationals and how this development is providing both opportunities and challenges for human resource development in the government sector of the Emirates, both at Federal and Emirates levels.
The primary concern with the development of the human resource capabilities of nationals in the UAE government sector is based upon the increasing proportion of nationals in management, service delivery and clerical positions in this sector plus the government desire that this proportion should continue to increase and that public services should be high quality and cost-effective.
Increasing numbers of young UAE nationals with higher education wish to have paid employment and most still look to the government sector as a sector of choice. At the same time, the UAE government is aware that it wishes to provide globally best practice quality public services both to nationals and non-nationals through a lean, efficient government sector.
The responsibilities of higher education in this model are two-fold. Firstly to ensure that the government sector has a substantial pool of good quality potential recruits graduating from full-time studies. Secondly to provide in-
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service human resource development for existing government employees to improve their professional, technical and personal/social skills.
Both these responsibilities will be analysed in this paper. To achieve this, the next five sections cover the following issues::
Progress in higher education provision and take-up in UAE
Challenges for UAE nationals in finding employment outside the government sector
The pattern of government sector employment and the human resource development challenges
Interactions between desires to increase the proportions of nationals in the government sector and increase quality of public services
The triple challenge to the higher education sector and human resource development provision in the government sector in UAE
Data for this paper draws not only on publicly available government statistics, but also six special surveys conducted by the UAE government’s Centre for Labour Market Research and Information (CLMRI) involving key informant decision-makers in government departments and higher education instituions and current government employees. Of course, the interpretations of their responses are the responsibility of author of this paper.
Progress in higher education provision in UAE
The period from the mid-1970s to today has wiitnessed a massive expansion in the formal education system, both government and private, for all young people resident in UAE. An initial expansion in primary education has now worked itself through to secondary education and increasing numbers of young people, especially nationals, are becoming qualified to proceed to higher education. This expansion in numbers of students has been matched proportionately by expansion in physical and staffing resources in the education sector (see Table 3).
TABLE 3: GOVERNMENTAL AND PRIVATE EDUCATION IN UAE: SCHOOLS, CLASSROOMS, TEACHING, ADMINISTRATIVE & TECHNICAL STAFF AND STUDENTS 1994/95 AND 2001/02
Years1994 / 1995
2001/2002
ItemM 259 334
Schools F 251 315
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Co-ed 437 539T 947 1188M 6865 8789
Classrooms F 6746 8491Co-ed 5744 7695T 19355 24975
Teaching, M 12631 15334Administrative &
F 24261 31726
Technical Staff T 36892 47060M 245848 299920
Students F 233048 285606T 478896 585526
Source : Ministry of Education and Youth.
There is room for much debate about how many nationals, especially men, will wish to proceed to higher education in the next decade. Past performance suggests women nationals have been taking up higher education places at a much faster rate than men. Not only do many more women complete secondary schooling, but they are also significantly more successful in examinations (see Table 4). Young men have had renumerative career options available in the military and police for two generations now and only recently have there been moves to encourage recruits to complete secondary school education before joining. So the expansion of higher education can be seen as highly gendered from this perspective.
TABLE 4: U.A.E EXAMINATION RESULTS IN SECONDARY GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS BY EDUCATIONAL STAGE, 1994 /1995 and 2001 / 2002
1994 / 1995
2001/2002
M F T M F TCandidates 17596 23493 41089 27390 34514 61904
Passed 14545 21357 35902 23934 32601 56535Failed 3051 2136 5187 3496 1913 5409
Pass % 82.66 90.91 87.38 87.38 94.46 91.33Source : Ministry of Education &Youth
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Expansion of higher education places has generally moved in line with increasing demand – the number of higher education places available overall has doubled since the mid-1990s. Most significantly, the introduction of Higher Colleges of Technology (HCTs) has allowed not only increased higher education opportunities quantitatively, but also increased the range of higher education qualifications with an applied/vocational emphasis – certificates, diplomas, higher diplomas and BScs in Applied Sciences – that can be completed in from one to four years. This flexible system has proved attractively accessible to many UAE students, notably young women.
The more conventional university system has also expanded and diversified with both individual emirates and the global education private sector setting up establishments offering a wide range of subjects at first degree level and some Masters’ level qualifications, notably MBAs (see Table 5). Some programmes for post-graduate development of professional skills beyond bachelor level in areas such as teaching have also been created in the conventional university sector.
Outside universities based in UAE and the HCTs are a wide range of other publicly accountable institutions in UAE offering advanced training – government departments (including subjects tailored to general administration, police, military, and health services), public corporations (including telecomunications). Chambers of Commerce have developed some relatively accessible initiatives. There are also Emirate level specialist sectoral training institutions (including banking and insurance) – offering advanced training leading to formally or informally UAE or internationally recognised qualifications. UAE students can and do also choose to study outside UAE in formal higher education institutions in other countries, with or wiothout government scholarships. Inside UAE, there is also an active “for profit” commercial education and training private sector offering career advancing skills with varying degrees of external accreditation.
TABLE 5: GRADUATES FROM HIGHER COLLEGES OF TECHNOLOGY BY SEX, 1991/92 AND 2001/02
Years MALE FEMALأE
Total
1992/1991 32 32 641993/1992 54 45 991994/1993 48 62 1101995/1994 48 68 1161996/1995 58 96 1541997/1996 136 144 2801998/1997 601 836 14371999/1998 847 1057 19042000/1999 575 959 15442001/2000 1097 1422 25362002/2001 1237 2084 3329
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Source : HIGHER COLLEGES OF TECHNOLOGY.
The stock of higher education places is currently being stretched to the extent that the minimum entry score in the General Certificate of Education is being raised. But there is substantial expansion in higher educational physical infrastructure being implemented in Dubai. The demographics of the national population are also moving gradually towards slower population growth and eventual decreased demand on the education system. In the medium term, quantitative expansion of demand for higher education places in line with the trend of the past decade is a challenge, but broadly meetable under existing plans with the number of graduating students roughly doubling by 2012 (see Table 6).
This should allow the focus of higher education strategy to move from meeting challenges of increasing quantity of places to issues of choice and quality.
In the last decade, expansion in numbers of places has been accompanied by a diversification and increased choice in subjects and forms of higher education available to, and taken up by UAE nationals. This diversity, with an associated wide range of fee structures and other costs, is impressive - though possibly confusing for both potential students and their potential employees. In terms of numbers of places and the range of subjects, UAE nationals and the UAE government sector today are in principle in a position to source locally to satisfy any demands for any form of human resource development they identify as desirable. If options do not currently exist in UAE then they can be sourced globally until the very active UAE higher education sector fills the gap.
The primary challenge is no longer quantity of places or choice of subject, it is quality of higher education experiences.
TABLE 6: OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN UAE AND NUMBERS OF STUDENTS ENROLLED, 2001 / 2002
Total students enrolled
UAE University 17242Scholarships 1289Zayed University 2225HTCs 12236Nursing Institutes 747Dubai College for Islamic studies
3182
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Dubai College for medicine
240
Ajman University 16089Ittisalat Engineering 269Ras Al-Khaima Seines College
1050
Horizon College – Sharjah
1014
Dubai Aviation College
168
Sharjah College 615Dubai Pharmaceutical College
0
Gulf Medical college
300
Sharjah University 3907Arab University college
0
Dubai University College
554
American University – Dubai
421
Institute for Banking Studies
193
American University – Sharjah
1805
Al Ghurair University-Dubai
574
Total 64120Note: Al Ittihad University- Ras Al-Khaimah was also in existence in 2001/02 but had not yet enrolled students according to Ministry of Planning records
Source: Ministry of Planning
Table 7: Estimates of Nos. of National Graduates of Higher Education, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2012
2004 2005 2009 2012Males 2529 2648 3181 3652Females 5674 5822 6287 6790Both Sexes 8203 8470 9468 10442
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Note: Estimates for graduates in 2004 from higher education institutions plus calculations based on an average annual growth rate of 4.7% for males and 2.6% for females
Quality in any area of education can be assessed at the activities, output and/or outcome stages. We will briefly discuss inputs and outputs in the remainder of this section and turn to outcomes in the following section.
Student/faculty ratios as activity quality indicators suggest a very wide range of experiences in the UAE University as a major provider of higher education to nationals in UAE (see Table 8). Most students are taught on ratios of more than 25 students per member of faculty. This has implications for both quality of teaching and availability of faculty time for research. The physical infrastructure aspect of higher education may be well covered in UAE, but the quality challenge may be in human resources and human resource development in the higher education sector itself.
Table 8: UAE University Teaching Staff by College and Nationality, and Student/Faculty Ratios (Academic Year 2001/2002)
College Students Teachers/Faculty Student/FacultyRatio
Nationals Non-Nationals
Total
Humanities and Social Sciences
5478 60 126 186 29.5
Sciences 2028 19 93 112 18.1Education 2444 17 45 62 39.4Business and Economics 1966 16 52 68 28.9Shari’a and Law 878 13 11 24 36.6Agricultural Sciences/Food Production
187 5 18 23 8.1
Engineering 1135 22 66 88 12.9Medicine and Health Sciences
239 9 72 81 3.0
Information Technology 274 0 10 10 27.4TOTAL (excl. post-graduate and external studies)
14629 161 493 654 22.3
Source: UAE University
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At the output level, the official statistics indicate that the higher education sector is only graduating about fifteen percent of its total enrolled national students in any year, suggesting students are taking about six years on average to obtain a higher education qualification (see Table 9 – there were over forty thousand national students enrolled in 2001/02). Of course, this could suggest very high quality in terms of students being stretched to meet high expectations, but all the more anecdotal evidence about quality in UAE higher education does not suggest UAE graduates are generally above the average by global standards and that the delays in graduation are an indicator of current input-output cost-effectiveness problems in the higher education sector – notwithstanding that the average length of time to complete a higher education qualification may have fallen from as much as nine years in the early 1990s.
Table 9: National Graduates of Higher Education Institutions (2000-2001)
InstitutionGraduates
Males Females Both Sexes
FederalUAE University 405 2235 2640Zayed University - 0 0Higher Colleges of Technology 1114 1422 2536Emirate Government & PrivateSharjah University 14 127 141Ajman University of Technology and Science 17 65 82American University of Dubai 3 8 11American University of Sharjah 6 14 20Dubai Medical College for Women - 9 9College of Islamic and Arabic Studies 28 144 172Dubai Police College 98 3 101Etisalat Engineering College 40 - 40Dubai Pharmacy College - 6 6Dubai University College 14 12 26Emirates Institute of Banking and Financial Studies 19 36 55Total 1758 4081 5839Source: Data provided by each institution
But part of these problems lie outside the control of the higher education sector in secondary schooling. The major university in UAE – the UAE University – has sufficient doubts about the quality of secondary education in UAE to require that about ninety percent of students take a Foundation year of studies before being permitted to proceed to the formal bachelor’s programme. It is estimated that this Foundation teaching accounts for between twenty and twenty five percent of the university budget. The need for
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this extra year in university is a concern, not only for the public resources it demands and the students’ time, but also for what it suggests about quality at both ends of the higher education experience. Can an unsatisfactory whole secondary education experience be fully compensated by one year at university?
The presence of large numbers of non-national children in UAE and the associated expansion of private schooling that is thereby also available to nationals may mean that improvement in government secondary schooling may lack powerful advocates. Low quality in the secondary education that most national children receive has clear knock-on effects into quality in higher education. Further discussion of the education system lies outside the remit of this paper, but it needs to be borne in mind that many fresh graduates from the UAE national education system will need immediate intensive HRD efforts to boost both technical and personal skills and competencies as they search for, and eventually enter employment.
In conclusion to this section of the paper, the higher education sector has expanded and diversified enormously and offers a great range of opportunities and choices. But throughout the sector there must be concerns about very variable quality in both institutional public and private provision and student preparedness which throws extra weight on those responsible for human resource development in the government sector as a major employer.
Challenges for UAE nationals in finding employment, especially outside the government sector
This paper is centrally concerned with Human Resource Development in the government sector and higher education regardless of the characteristics of government employees. Nevertheless government desire to ensure UAE citizens who wish for them have worthwhile employment and good quality working experiences must be taken into full account. This section of the paper is concerned with understanding the challenges to both UAE government and its younger citizens in achieving these desires.
To set the stage for this section of the paper, the initial focus will be on outcomes of the full-time, pre-employment higher education sector. One indicator of successful outcomes is the placement of graduates in satisfactory employment relatively soon after graduation. Data from the UAE University (UAEU) and TANMIA are compared in Table 10. UAEU is the major supplier of national graduates to the UAE job market and TANMIA is the government agency charged with faciltiating nationals finding acceptable employment.
Table 11 reveals there is a significant unemployment problem for recently graduated nationals. Registering with TANMIA is initiated by the job seeker as a voluntary process requiring time and effort on the part of the applicant. Therefore the TANMIA figures will tend to underestimate frustration with not finding satisfactory work. Nevertheless the totals suggest a possible unemployment rate of about ten percent for men graduates and over fifteen
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percent for women graduates. There are variations between academic disciplines, but it is noticeable that women graduates from Business and Economics have an implied unemployment rate of over twenty percent. Statistics calculated on a similar basis for HCT graduates also suggest women graduates specialising in management and information technology also show high unemployment rates.
While the private sector has expanded enormously in the last thirty years, CLMRI research has shown that many private sector employers employ no nationals and are hesitant to the point of unwilling to experiment in this direction. There have been some sectoral improvements in national employment, notably banking and insurance, but the wider private sector economy is proving resistant to employing recently graduated nationals with higher education who need Human Resorce Development. The cost-effective alternative of globally sourcing experienced employees with proven track records on an as-needs, just in time basis is very attractive. The fact that these employees may well share cultural, language, age and gender characteristics with the existing workforce compounds this situation.
There is also a need to understand why young nationals coming out of higher education have preferences that lead to choices in favour of the government sector. The reasons why nationals have this preference may be a combination of the following factors:
Perceptions: the private sector is seen as having negative attitudes to entry by nationals
Motivations: public sector employment is seen as more compatible with national cultural values than private sector employment
Aspirations: the public sector is seen as offering a better package of life-time, family well-being alternatives than the private sector
Skills: the private sector is seen as demanding different skills to those developed by nationals in the normal process of their development
Experience: lack of family experience of the private sector or actual negative experiences
These factors are interdependent and, almost regardless of whether they are generally true, together tend to create beliefs that barriers to entry to private sector employment other than through top-down “sponsor” relationships are complex and associated entry and opportunity costs are high. But TANMIA’s experiences and data from HCTs suggest increasing numbers of young nationals are ready to work in the private sector.
Reinforcing such a shift is the growing realisation that the “transferable” skills demanded in the private sector are increasingly being advocated in the public sector in New Public Sector Management models. Willingness and competence to take initiatives and to succeed competitively as an individual
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as well as co-operatively as a team is believed to be needed if the government sector is to provide high quality services in a fast changing environment. The high level human resource demands of the private sector and government sector are becoming more similar and higher education can play a role in developing human resources capable of lowering the barriers between the sectors.
This role can be seen as meeting two needs:
a need for a sense of continuity in co-operative cultural identity centred on the family in a context of rapid transition to greater individual decision and risk-taking while conserving co-operative behaviour
a need for continuing, reinforcing messages creating a dynamic human resource development environment building key transferable skills and confidence in individual and team capacity to match best practice public service provision globally
The development of high quality human resource skills depends critically on the quality of higher education as such development to higher levels demands a much more interactive, sensitive approach from teachers/faciltiators and state-of-the-art material resources than conventional rote learning.
There are some useful innovations taking place that link higher education to work experiences. Evidence on job placements while in full-time higher education was obtained by CLMRI from a relatively randomised survey of large scale employers and graduates with placement experiences. The results do suggest reasonably positive outcomes, but showed government accounted for a significant proportion of the placements and the graduates valued the experience as informing their higher education rather than their higher education finding meaning in the work experience (see Tables 12 and 13). The connections between higher education and the private sector (employing very close to a hundred percent non-nationals) are still weak and the pressure for nationals to seek to achieve development of their human resources in the government sector is still strong. The conclusion of this section of the paper is that there is a growing unemployment problem for young higher educated nationals, even among those who choose to study subjects that should offer access to jobs in the private as well as the government sector. At this time, the problem is gendered in that it is immediately a significantly greater problem for young women than for young men, but possibly ten percent of young men who opt to go for higher education rather than the military or the police services are also suffering. The implications for the current generation’s attitudes to themselves and wider society need to be taken into account when considering human resource development in UAE, and some responsibility for meeting this challenge lies with expanded and improved “human resource development with a national face” in the government sector.
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Table 10: Bachelor Degree National Graduates of UAE University 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 vs. Registered Unemployed Bachelor
Degree Graduates at TANMIA, April 2002, by Major
Faculty/College Gender UAE University Graduates
Registered Unemployed
Bachelor Degree
Graduates 2002
2000 2001 Total
Humanities and Social Sciences
Males 127 85 212 16Females 753 811 1546 435Females 12 21 33 11Females 81 104 185 36
Sciences
Males 20 32 52 8Females 386 370 756 68
Education
Males 59 22 81 1Females 538 553 1091 75
Business and Economics
Males 74 95 169 35Females 210 254 464 100
Law and Shari’ah
Males 45 49 94 10Females 25 24 49 31
Agricultural Science
Males 14 4 18 1Females 46 35 81 35
Engineering
Males 84 82 166 11Females 59 74 133 20
Medical and Health Science
Males 6 13 19 0Females 20 15 35 0
Total
Males 429 382 811 82Females 2037 2136 4173 764Both Sexes 2466 2518 4984 846
Source: As compiled from data of unemployed applicants at TANMIA and records of United Arab Emirates University, Office of Deputy Vice Chancellor for Planning
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Table 11: Proportions of Selected and Responding Large Employers Offering Work Placements in the last 12 Months by Sector
Govt. Semi-Govt.
Private Total %
Yes 131 56 165 352 78.92
No 28 2 64 94 21.08
Grand Total 169 58 229 446 100.00
Source: CLMRI, Work Placement – Employers’ Survey (2002-03)
Table 12: UAE Graduates Views on Contribution of Work Placement to Education ProgrammeWork Placement Contributes to Education Programme
Graduates Agreeing
%
Yes 223 82.29
No 7 2.58
To some extent 41 15.13
Total 271 100.00Source: CLMRI, Work Placement – Graduates’ Survey (2002-03).
Table 13 : UAE Graduates Views on Relevance of Education Programme to Work Placement
Education Programmes relevant to Work Placement
Graduates Agreeing
%
Yes 127 47.38
No 28 10.44
To some extent 113 42.16
Total 268 100.00
Source: CLMRI, Work Placement – Graduates’ Survey (2002-03).
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The pattern of public sector employment and the associated human resource development challenges
The government sector has been the major provider of salaried work for nationals since the 1970s. The government has set a high standard in terms of rates of pay, welfare provision, and job security that are hard to match anywhere in the world. These comparatively excellent employment conditions apply especially to nationals in the early stages of government service compared to any accessible alternative opportunity. Understandably many young nationals therefore aspire to join the government sector – and many young men do join the military and police without entering higher education.
But nevertheless, the government sector still employs numerous non-nationals (see Table 14) for recent Federal Ministries’ statistics), though not on such good terms and conditions. The Federal government is looking to increase the proportion of nationals from its current fifty percent as a strategic aim. For instance, the proportion of nationals in Federal government service shown in Table 15 rises from 50.13 percent in December 2002 to 51.3 percent in July 2003. As a longer term goal, much larger increases in the proportion of nationals as a longer term goal are currently being actively discussed with significant human resource development implications.
In the wider Federal government sector outside the Federal Ministries, there is a wide range of activities and services being undertaken, including by some institutions with specific responsibilities for higher education/human resource development. But the overall percentage of nationals in these institutions is significantly lower than in the Ministries, indicating that the closer to professional/technical service delivery the more difficult is access for nationals (see Table 16).
This indication receives some confirmation from the 1995 census results for the whole government sector including Emirate and more local level government plus activiites with a substantial government stake. This data is the most recent publicly available data that links standard international occupational specifications to the government sector.
The results for managerial/executive positions show a strong presence in Federal government and local government, but much weaker proportionately in the direct service providing institutions. For clerical workers, Federal government has a high proportion of nationals, but local government joins the other institutions considerably behind this figure (see Table 17). Since 1995, it is probable that all these statistics have moved significantly in favour of nationals but there are reasons not to be complacent about the structural questions indicated by these patterns.
Globally, efforts at reform of the whole government sector in UAE follow a broad version of the New Public Sector Management model which emphasises:
Fewer direct government employees
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Lower, flatter hierarchies of control
Reduction in centralised staff and more emphasis on teams of staff directly delivering services valued by clients
Use of labour economising information technology and thereby reducing clerical staff to raise both productivity and accountability
This model is by means undisputed, but it is influential, and the UAE government sector is a strong candidate for some movement in this direction. Available data suggests these changes will both tend to reduce employment opportunities in the government sector in general and in areas where national employees are most concentrated in particular. This suggests a double vulnerability of which human resource development with a national face for the government sector needs to be very aware. If public sector reform is perceived as damaging employment opportunities for nationals and there is no compensating action on human resource development for nationals then BOTH the reforms and social harmony are vulnerable.
Table 14: Numbers of Employees in Federal Ministries, 30.5.2003 (with change from 31.12.2002)
Ministries Employment at 30.5.2003 Difference in no. of employees
from 31.12.2002-30.5.2003
Nationals
Non-Nationals
Total Nationals
Non-nationals
Ministry of Education & Youth 15147 16950 32097 320 102Ministry of Health 3163 9075 12238 150 65Ministry of Information & Culture
268 190 458 5 2
Ministry of the Interior 11869 3840 15709 310 -38Ministry of the Interior (Military) 0 0 0 0 0Ministry of Electricity & Water 34 21 55 -2 1Ministry of Public Works & Housing
313 99 412 1 -5
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Resources & Fisheries
453 344 797 -1 1
Ministry of Communications 69 81 149 1 -1Ministry of External Affairs 520 55 575 18 1Judiciary Sector 725 615 1340 25 8Islamic Affairs Sector 668 2227 2895 -35 23Ministry of Labour & Social Affairs
1171 232 1403 58 -13
Ministry of Finance & Industry 264 241 505 0 -2
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State Ministry for Cabinet Affairs
27 19 46 -5 -1
Civil Service Bureau 123 57 180 -134 3Ministry of Planning 94 44 138 3 -3Ministry of Economy & Trade 139 56 195 -3 -2Ministry of Oil & Mineral Resources
30 22 52 -1 1
Cabinet Presidency 19 3 22 -1 0Protocol Department 69 252 321 0 -1State Ministry for the Supreme Council Affairs
6 5 11 -1 0
Deputy Prime Minister’s Court 17 26 43 -7 -1Min. of High Educ & Sci. Research
39 26 65 -1 -1
35227 34480 69706 700 139
Source: Government of UAE
Table 15:Employment & Emiratisation in Federal Organizations (2003)
Federal Organization Emiratisation %
No of Employees TotalNation
alsNon-
nationals
Emirates Services Corporation 55 18 15 33General Organization for Pensions & social
security48 43 46 89
Federal Customs Authority 0 0 0Emirates Standards Organization 47 9 10 19
Real Estate Bank 20 4 16 20Emirates Media Corporation 0 0 0
Emirates Stock & Commodity Market 39 9 14 23Information Authority 62 51 31 82
Endowments Authority 39 9 14 23Marriage Fund 57 41 31 72
National Human Resource Development & Employment Authority “TANMIA
74 53 19 72
Federal Environment Authority 41 11 16 27Federal Water & Electricity Authority 23 365 1252 1617
Youth Welfare & Sports Authority 81 62 15 77Sheikh Zayed Housing Scheme 87 39 6 45
Emirates Real Estate Corporation 38 5 8 13Institute of Management Development 57 36 27 63
UAE University 32 494 1034 1528Higher Colleges of Technology 0 0 0
Zayed University 0 0 0Emirates Post Corporation 0 0 0
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AVERAGE/TOTAL 33%
12492554 3803
Source: Government of UAE
Table 16: Nationals and Non-Nationals Employed in Managerial Occupations* in Federal and Local Govts, Public and Mixed Sectors (1995)
Sector
Nationals Non-Nationals TOTAL
M F Total % of Total in Sector
M F Total % of Total in Sector
Federal Govt.
2184 783 2967 60.2 1814 144 1958 39.8 4925
Local Govt. 2098 129 2227 64.7 1123 91 1214 35.3 3441Public Sector
318 13 331 38.3 432 37 469 54.4 863
Mixed Sector 530 38 568 29.2 1308 66 1374 70.8 1942* Include Law makers, Senior Officials & DirectorsSource: Compiled from 1995 Census Data
Table 17: Nationals and Non-Nationals Employed in Clerical and Related Occupations in Federal and Local Govts., Public and Mixed Sectors (1995)
Sector
Nationals Non-Nationals TOTAL
Male Female
Total % of Total in Sector
Male Female
Total % of Total in Sector
Federal Govt.
3798 1307 5105 57.8 3048 682 3730 42.2 8835
Local Govt. 3490 723 4213 28.4 9482 1157 10639
71.6 14852
Public Sector
481 70 551 24.6 1350 337 1687 75.4 2238
Mixed Sector 695 367 1062 18.6 3700 936 4636 81.4 5698Source: Compiled from 1995 Census Data
Interactions between desires to increase the proportions of nationals in the government sector and increase quality of public services
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This section of the paper uses primary survey data collected by CLMRI to give insights into the role higher education plays in government sector performance and the implications for human resource development with a national face.
CLMRI approached staff in personnel management in thirty local government authorities asking for their judgements on the ideal profiles for new recruits to professional and clerical posts in their organisations. These are seen as the types of posts that nationals are most likely to find acceptable in terms of work content and conditions of service.
The responses suggest a dichotomised view of the two types of employment (see Table 18). A university degree is seen as necessary for a professional post by over ninety percent of respondents, while a high school certificate is seen as sufficient qualification for clerical work by eighty percent of respondents. This suggests that applicants with diplomas and higher diplomas may be vulnerable to falling between two stools.
The historical availability of relatively cheap labour from the global labour market may have encouraged managerial attitudes and choices of technology that have reduced clerical work to mechanical routine requiring no responsibility to be taken and having no career path. Such dichotomies in roles and lack of transition opportunities for talented people without university degrees between higher clerical jobs and professional jobs may require a pro-active human resource development strategy. There is a clear risk that national women with HCT diplomas and higher diplomas might find themselves very frustrated without such a strategy.
In terms of experience required, the responses were more mixed from the standpoint of national recruits to professional posts (see Table 19). While forty percent were willing to accept professional recruits with no experience, almost forty percent wanted three or more years experience. This contrasts with clerical workers, where over three quarters of the respondents were willing to recruit without requiring prior experience. Therefore. for professional staff, there is a human resource development challenge of developing formal programmes for nationals with university degrees to rapidly make up for lack of experience – experience that they may find difficult to access in non-government sectors of the economy. Table 18: Educational Qualifications Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations
Level of Education
Professional
% Clerical %
Master & above
University Degree
1
28
1
3.3
93.4
1.3
-
-
-
-
-
-
21
Higher Diploma
Diploma
High School Cert.
-
-
-
-
6
24
20
80
TOTAL 30 100.00
- 30
Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
Table 19: Experience Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations
Years of Experience
Professional
% Clerical %
Not Required
1
2
3
4
5
12
-
6
7
1
4
40
-
20
23.3
3.3
13.3
23
3
3
1
-
-
76.7
10
10
3.3
-
-TOTAL 30 100.0
030 100.00
Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
The personnel officers were also asked about general “transferable” competencies they expected recruits to the government sector to possess. English language competence was highly valued for junior managers, but less so for clerical workers - though there was still an expectation that three quarters of clerical recruits would have at least good English, and this in local government where it might be expected a high proportion of communication would be in Arabic (see Tables 20 and 21).
Excellent competencies in information technology were a virtually essential requirement for both junior managers and clerical workers across the range of common applications (see Tables 22 and 23). Therefore all higher education institutions need to ensure such competencies are developed and perhaps also formally certificated for all students as key transferable skills.
The personnel manager key informants were also asked about those skills and competencies that are often labelled as “soft”, that is skills and colmpetencies that lubricate the smooth, efficient, and effective running of organisations (see Tables 24 and 25). The responses for junior management
22
recruits were almost universally strongly positive on the need for such skills. Only leadership and resource control techniques were assessed as slightly less important for junior managers. For clerical posts, these two categories were joined by negotiation skills, but a majority of personnel managers expected clerical workers to show initiative and creativity, be good team players and be target driven.
Table 20: Level of English Language Required for Junior Managerial Occupations
Level Read Write Speak
Satisfactory 4 (13.3%) 4 (13.3%) 4 (13.3%)Good 5 (16.7%) 5 (16.7%) 5 (16.7%)Excellent 21 (70%) 21 (70%) 21 (70%)TOTAL 30 (100.00) 30 (100.00) 30 (100.00)Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
Table 21: Level of English Language Required for Clerical OccupationsLevel Read Write Speak
Satisfactory 8 (26.6%) 7 (23.3%) 7 (23.3%)Good 14 (46.6%) 15 (50%) 15 (50%)Excellent 8 (26.6%) 8 (26.6%) 8 (26.6%)TOTAL 30 (100.00) 30 (100.00) 30 (100.00)Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
Table 22: IT Skills Required for Junior ManagersIT Skills Satisfactor
yGood Excellent TOTAL
Using Word Software - 7 (23.3%) 23 (76.7%) 30Using Spreadsheet Software 3 (10%) 4 (13.3%) 23 (76.7%) 30Using database Software 3 (10%) 4 (13.3%) 23 (76.7%) 30Using accounting Software 2 (6.6%) 5 (16.7%) 23 (76.7%) 30(Others (e.g. Internet) 5 (16.7%) 4 (13.3%) 21 (70%) 30Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
Table 23: IT Skills Required for Clerical OccupationsIT Skills Satisfactor
yGood Excellent TOTAL
Using Word Processing Software
- 8 (26.7%) 22 (73.3%) 30
Using Spreadsheet Software 1 (3.3%) 6 (20%) 23 (76.7%) 30Using database Software 1 (3.3%) 4 (13.3%) 25 (83.3%) 30Using accounting Software - 7 (23.3%) 23 (76.7%) 30
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(Others (e.g. Internet) - 5 (16.7%) 25 (83.3%) 30Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
Table 24: Local Government Personnel Managers Assessment of Requirements for Non-Technical Skills in Junior Managerial OccupationsNon- Technical Skills Not
ImportantNeutral Important TOTAL
Target-Driven - 2 (7.7%) 24 (92.3%) 26Initiative/Creative - 3 (11.5%) 23 (88.5%) 26Leadership 1 (3.8%) 4 (15.4%) 21 (80.8%) 26Flexibility - 3 (11.5%) 23 (88.5%) 26Team Work Spirit - 1 (3.8%) 25 (96.2%) 26Resource Control 1 (3.8%) 4 (15.4%) 21 (80.8%) 26Negotiation - 1 (3.8%) 25 (96.2%) 26Others (e.g. Planning) - 1 (3.8%) 25 (96.2) 26Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
Table 25: Local Government Personnel Managers Assessment of Requirements for Non-Technical Skills in Clerical OccupationsNon- Technical Skills Not
ImportantNeutral Important TOTAL
Target-Driven 2 (7.7%) 6 (23.1%) 18 (69.2%) 26Initiative/Creative 3 (11.5%) 10 (38.5%) 13 (50%) 26Leadership 9 (34.6%) 11 (42.3%) 6 (23.1%) 26Flexibility 3 (11.5%) 8 (30.8%) 15 (57.7%) 26Team Work Spirit 1 (3.8%) 5 (19.2%) 21 (80.8%) 26Resource Control 5 (19.2%) 15 (57.7%) 6 (32.1%) 26Negotiation 8 (30.8%) 13 (50%) 5 (19.2%) 26Others (e.g. Planning) 13 (50%) 8 (30.8%) 5(19.2%) 26Source: CLMRI, Project “Qualifications and Skills Required for Professional and Clerical Occupations in the Local Governments Sector”.
In summary, these key informant personnel managers are generally looking for the following qualities in their recruits:
University degrees for professional appointments often combined with three or more years experience
Excellent competencies in English language and a range of standard IT packages plus a wide range of good "soft" organisational transferable skills, including negotiation and leadership skills, for junior management posts
Good English language and excellent IT skills with good "soft" organisational transferable skills, such as teamworking and taking
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initiatives, for clerical workers, but relatively low educational qualifications and no previous experience.
The sampled local government personnel managers' responses are sufficiently concentrated in terms of their distribution to suggest they are likely to be broadly statistically representative of all local government personnel managers. The pattern of their reponses is consistent with a broad New Public Sector Management model. If it is acceptable to assume that local government is likely to be at the more conservative end of the spectrum of the government sector then the whole of the government sector personnel system may well be looking to this model as the way forward in public sector reform towards more cost-effective, higher quality government services.
The implications of these findings for human resource development with a national face in higher education and the government sector are:
Action in both higher education and the government sector to identify the important experiential competencies gained in the early years of professional work and designing programmes to fast-track the development of these competencies in the period of later higher education and earlier government service
Awareness across the whole of higher education that it has a responsibility to all students for developing proven transferable skills in English language, IT and applied "soft" organisational skills.
Adoption of clerical worker human resource development programmes to provide clear career paths for people, primarily women, with HCT diploma and higher diploma qualifications who are more likely to possess required transferable skills but who would be educationally over-qualified by historical recruitment criteria for clerical jobs.
Further insights into the relationship between higher education and the government sector can be gained from recent CLMRI surveys of current government employees' assessments of the linkages between their work and their education. The whole range of government employees with university degrees were given the opportunity to respond to a questionnaire on their education and training history and future aspirations. Very close to one thousand people responded.
The respondents were asked to give their judgements on the relevance of their degree programme to their current work. Overall the proportion who could see relevance was 0.48 (48 percent). Only Medical and Health Sciences (9 respondents), Education (104 respondents) and Shari’ah Law (101 respondents) programmes gained scores of over 0.50, with most programmes scoring between 0.40 and 0.49.
In terms of categories of jobs, scientific, technical and education specialists found a relatively high degree of relevance. Clerical workers found the least relevance, including those from business administration programmes. This
25
finding on clerical workers is consistent with the findings above on issues of entry and career development at clerical levels in government service.
There is no absolute standard for evaluating these scores, but they suggest much potential room for improvement. Better bridging between higher education and the government sector could help make such improvement. If that is to be the case, then both sides need to make efforts to make education more relevant to work and work to further develop capabilities gained in education. The findings on placements reported earlier suggest the greater onus lies on the higher education side as students seemed to find work feeding back into education more than education into work. But a bridge can be built more cost-effectively if construction is undertaken from both banks of the river simultaneously.
Three other CLMRI research surveys involved over 1300 government employees across the range of occupations and institutions. These employees were asked to assess what were the factors that tended to disadvantage nationals in the government sector (see Tables 26 and 27). The respondents were asked to select factors they felt significant from a set number of categories and more than one could be chosen. For the purposes of this paper we have only reported those responses most relevant to human resource development.
The results suggest lack of prior qualifications, skills and experience are not considered key constraints on employing nationals in the government sector. Rather the problem is one of training available once in-service. There is undoubtedly a bias here in terms that people actually in government jobs are less likely to think problems lies with initial skills, qualifications and experience. But the consistent emphasis in two separate questions on more training as both a cause of disadvantage plus a means of reducing disadvantage above other factors is very impressive in the Federal Government sector. Local government and public corporation employees share the enthusiasm for more future training, but are less convinced by the lack of training as the primary cause of disadvantage for nationals compared to non-nationals in both percentages and ranking. The tables show that this conclusion holds reasonably consistently across gender and level of education differences.
Table 26: University educated government employee’s views on human resource development constraints and opportunities by gender
Federal
% (ranking)
Male
Female
Local
government
% (ranking)
Male
Female
Public
corporations
% (ranking)
Male
Female
How do you rank relative lack of skills
26
and qualifications in explaining why
there not more nationals in your
organisation? (1 of 7 categories)
18.7(4)
17.2(5)
30.4(3)
28.2(3)
29.6(4)
15.2(6)
How do you rank lack of training as a
disadvantage for nationals? (1 of 6
categories)
46.1(1)
50.5(1)
36.0(2)
31.3(3)
30.9(3)
29.3(4)
How do you rank lack of experience as
a disadvantage for nationals? (1 of 6
categories)
28.4(3)
20.6(4)
27.4(4)
18.8(4)
27.8(4)
31.9(3)
How do you rank more training as a
way of reducing disadvantages for
nationals? (1 of 8 categories)
65.9(2)
75.5(1)
69.2(1)
66.0(1)
76.3(1)
73.3(1)
Number of potential respondents 236
260
330
191
184
180
Source: CLMRI surveys of employees in Federal Government, Local Government and Public Corporations, UAE National Labour Force series, Numbers 2,3 and 4, 2002
Table 27: University educated government employee’s views on human resource development constraints and opportunities by gender
Federal% (ranking)Lower HigherEd’n Ed’n
Local government% (ranking)Lower HigherEd’n Ed’n
Public corporations% (ranking)Lower HigherEd’n Ed’n
How do you rank lack of training as a
disadvantage for nationals? (1 of 6
categories)
52.4 (1) 43.8(1)
33.3(3) 35.8(2)
31.3(2) 27.7(4)
How do you rank lack of experience as
a disadvantage for nationals? (1 of 6
categories)
23.8(4) 25.8(4)
24.9(4) 20.8(4)
25.9(4) 38.5 (2)
How do you rank more training as a
way of increasing employment of
nationals? (1 of 8 categories)
67.1(1) 74.3(1)
67.1(1) 71.4 (1)
75.2(1) 73.5(1)
27
Number of potential respondents 237 264
383 130
224 110
Source: CLMRI surveys of employees in Federal Government, Local Government and Public Corporations, UAE National Labour Force series, Numbers 2,3 and 4, 2002
NB: higher education includes HCT and university levels
This enthusiasm for training can also be found in the specific survey of about one thousand university educated government employees (see Tables 28 and 29) . When asked about their training needs, only 20 percent expressed no training needs. Well over fifty percent expressed a desire to obtain post-graduate qualifications and all the forms of training offered in the questionnaire received significant numbers of responses. Forty percent expressed a desire for two or more different areas for training.
Thus all four CLMRI surveys covering the whole range of existing government sector employees indicate a widespread hunger for formal human resource development, both in itself and as a way of reducing the disadvantages that nationals feel in obtaining and progressing in government employment.
Overall, the results of all the CLMRI research studies in this area are consistent with “bottom-up” demands for a more active strategy of human resource development with a national face in the government sector closely involving higher education institutions in a range of provision from relatively short training courses to full post-graduate programmes.
Table 28: Training desires of existing university educated government employees
Post-graduate
qualification (evening
study) in Engineering,
Administration or any
other area
Short term training in English
Short term training in Administration
Short term training in Accounting
Short term training in Computer Skills
Short term training in Other Technical Skills
555 312 192 110 282 148
SOURCE: CLMRI survey of university educated nationals in Federal and Emirate government services, 2002
Table 29: Training demand intensity of existing university educated government employees
Number of forms of training wanted Number of
28
out of the six offered respondentsAll 6 16
5 404 503 1362 1601 3710 192
TOTAL RESPONDENTS 965
SOURCE: CLMRI survey of university educated nationals in Federal and Emirate government services, 2002
The triple challenge to the higher education sector and human resource development provision in the government sector in UAE
This paper has ranged widely over the challenges facing the government sector and higher education institutions in UAE today. In summary these challenges are to:
raise the quality of higher education, both in academic subjects and broad “transferable” skills, especially in public sector funded higher education institutions to ensure increasing access to international “best practice” higher education for nationals so they can compete effectively in a de facto globalised labour market
increase the quantity of human resource development offered in collaboration with higher education institutions to all employees in the government sector in forms consistent with a New Public Sector Management model, but paying special attention to the career paths of women nationals with HCT qualifications
bridge between the government sector and higher education institutions to increase relevance of higher education to work on one side and effectively use capabilities developed in higher education for improved public services on the other.
To a considerable degree, these challenges are unintended by-products of the success of the United Arab Emirates in achieving substantial real economic growth by providing high quality infrastructure using a globally sourced labour force. The government sector has played roles as both wide-ranging service provider and national labour absorber/income provider in this process.
This combination of roles has produced a very complex outcome in terms of effectiveness and efficiency of public services and a sense that reform in the direction of the New Public Sector Management model is needed. This reform is threatening to further marginalise young nationals with respect to employment opportunities. A Human Resource Development with a National
29
Face for the government sector in close collaboration with higher education could play a significant role in not only decreasing the amount of this marginalisation but also increasing the quality of the work experience, maintaining nationals’ incomes and improving public services.
Documentation
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Centre for Labour Market Research and Information, TANMIA: Towards increasing productivity of nationals through work reorganization and training in the UAE public sector, Specialist Report No. 5, 1999
Centre for Labour Market Research and Information, TANMIA: Work and work conditions of the UAE nationals in Federal Government Agencies and their perceptions on emiratisation policies. UAE National Labour Force Series No 2, 2002
Centre for Labour Market Research and Information, TANMIA: Work and work conditions of the UAE nationals in Local Government Agencies and their perceptions on emiratisation policies. UAE National Labour Force Series No 3, 2002
Centre for Labour Market Research and Information, TANMIA: Work and work conditions of the UAE nationals in public corporations and their perceptions on emiratisation policies. UAE National Labour Force Series No 4, 2002
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