Educators, policy makers, and Post Graduate students attended the first session in the Third Annual Education Policy Forum Series entitled “Educating for Creativity.” The forum was organized by Middlesex University Dubai in collaboration with the Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research from Ras Al Khaimah, and was convened at the Middlesex University in Knowledge Village on Tuesday November 15th.

Due to the growing recognition of creativity and innovation being critical skills for students to master and lack of emphasis placed on the creative arts in schools across the UAE, the forum considered four local initiatives and approaches to fostering creativity in the education sector in the UAE. The panelists included Sunaina Shivpuri, the Country Manager of Design for Change, a global initiative designed to give children the opportunity to express their own ideas by creatively designing and implementing a positive change. Ms. Shivpuriis in the process of introducing Design for Change to UAE’s schools. She emphasized the importance of the words “I can” in encouraging children to play an active role in addressing problems around them. The second panelist was Wemmy de Maaker, Managing Director of Mawaheb for Beautiful People, an art center designed for young adults with special needs. Ms. De Maaker stated in her presentation that the purpose of the art studio is to bridge the gap between society and those people with a special need and to illustrate the importance of art in developing life skills and encouraging students to be more independent individuals. The following speaker was Suqrat Bin Bishr, a media student at the Dubai Men’s College and artist. As the founder of the Student Art Club, Mr. BinBishr discussed the importance of having art teachers, with strong educational backgrounds, to inspire and challenge students to be creative and take risks with their work.

Finally, Mr. Neville Sherman, Principal of the Westminster School, described a number of successful initiatives that have been implemented in his school to incorporate creative arts across the curriculum and daily school activities. These include playing music before classes in the mornings, holding an auction of student and parent art, setting up a creative writing club, and more. The panel was moderated by Richard Dean, presenter of the Tonight show on Dubai Eye radio and Adjunct Faculty member at Middlesex University Dubai.

The Education Policy Forum Series is designed to bring together key players in the education sector to discuss and debate a number of topics that have emerged as major issues of concern to the general public and the education community. They will attempt to create an open discussion of these issues in order to generate new ideas and raise awareness of the many concerns of people involved in education in the UAE. The next forum is scheduled for early 2012.

Lack of interest from private sector companies is blocking nationalization, says Edexcel

Dubai, UAE, 22nd February, 2010: GCC governments are playing their role in integrating nationals into the private sector, but more needs to be done by companies to lure nationals into the private sector, according to Edexcel, a leading provider of internationally recognized academic and professional qualifications.

This is one of the topics that were addressed at the “Nationalisation 2010 Conference” currently being held in Al Murooj Rotana Hotel in Dubai.

It is estimated that UAE nationals make up just four per cent of the private sector workforce, compared to 52 per cent in public sector.

Mark Andrews, MENA Regional Director, Edexcel, the associate sponsor of the Conference, said imposing nationalisation quotas on private companies would be counter productive. “The key is to provide the right education to these nationals to nurture their skills, and make efforts to strike a balance between Emiratis’ salary expectations and private companies’ priority on optimum productivity.”

Other critical issues include bridging the gap between the knowledge obtained through formal education and skills required by employers, according to Andrews.

Developing nationals to leadership positions in the private sector would be the ideal way to integrate more nationals into the private sector at all levels. Local employees have traditionally given preference to the public sector. They also display strong preferences for particular jobs and avoid certain others, thus creating an imbalance in their availability for certain job segments. Further, talented nationals are in high demand and difficult to retain, creating a retention challenge.

“It is a two-way street. Nationals have to show more zeal to be integrated into the private sector and companies should work harder on integrating them into their multinational workforce,” said Andrews.

Andrews added: “Developing nationals for leadership positions will have a domino effect on the move to have more nationals into lower management positions. The main aim of Nationalisation is to develop GCC leaders of tomorrow. Education plays a key role in developing the leadership skills of raw talent in the Gulf.”

Currently, private companies in certain sectors in the Gulf are required by the governments to employ a certain number of GCC nationals. 

“The GCC education system should work on introducing students to the real-world workplace. It is important to ensure that university and college graduates meet the needs of the labour market if the campaign to have more nationals in the private sector is to succeed,” added Andrews.

Middle East education has to prepare future generations to help economies to compete in the global skills race and there is a disconnect between educators and employers. As a result, there is an absence of the development of workforce behaviors within education, such as leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Edexcel’s vocational qualifications provide a practical, real-world approach to learning alongside a theoretical background. They are designed both to replicate the professional working environment and provide learners with the skills, knowledge and behaviors they need to succeed in an increasingly competitive global market.

Edexcel, the leading UK based awarding body, is part of Pearson, one of the world’s largest education services providers. It offers academic and professional qualifications and testing to thousands of schools, colleges, employers and other places of learning globally, and has over 4 million learners enrolled on its highly regarded courses in more than 85 countries.

In the UAE, Edexcel works with many private institutions as well as government-funded training providers responsible for educating the local population, which include the National Institute for Vocational Education, the Institute for Vocational Development and the Sharjah Institute of Technology.