Training Magazine Middle East Q3 2015 | Page 65

EXPO 2020: Can Dubai Fill The Skills Gap?

Successful education-to-employment transition requires active involvement from educators and employers into each other’s worlds. Here are two ideas.

Teach practical STEM: GCC lacks skills in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Nationals must be taught the application of these skills and rewarded for outstanding performance.

Employers can use their market knowledge to partner with educators who design and facilitate these programs. In return, educators can mandate work experience and provide hiring guarantees to top students. With an ever-increasing demand for STEM, this will equip nationals take on responsible positions in the private sector.

Bring world-class educators and students to GCC: Qatar has taken bold steps under the direction of HH Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser who instituted the Qatar Foundation to bring top international universities to Qatar.

Top foreign educators provide Qatari nationals with unprecedented access to technology & research. Similar efforts have been made across GCC.

These already-excellent programs can be

enhanced by designing mandatory group assignments with students from other cultures.

These interactions will enrich nationals' perspective by improving their English and deepening their understanding of diverse cultural backgrounds - invaluable skills when the world’s best MNCs come to the GCC.

Education is not the single solution to nationalization but it is the primary dimension that drives economic reform. I leave some questions unanswered but hope that my ideas will trigger others’ thinking as we create a bright future for the GCC.

Anjana Karumathil is an L&D specialist at a leading Oil & Gas company in Doha. She received her MBA with Distinction from Strathclyde Business School, UK.

Her 13-year career across Deloitte Consulting and Tata Consultancy Services Limited has included increasingly challenging roles across IT, business strategy and corporate learning.

Nationalization 101 Feature