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Are tomorrow’s skills being taught today?

Are schools and universities in UAE ready to adapt to the rapid pace of change for future skills? Gulf News speaks to stakeholders

 Digitisation and the increasing use of artificial intelligence are bringing about a massive change to places of work, and being employable in these offices of the future requires a different set of skills among today’s students. The pressure is being felt across educational systems and institutions across the UAE, Gulf News has found.

And while employers still cite a lack of skills and adequate preparation as reasons for job vacancies, schools and universities are increasingly adopting pedagogies that stress in-demand skills like critical thinking, problem solving and tech-savviness among their students.

A report released this year (2018) by the British Council, entitled ‘Future Skills Supporting the UAE’s Future Workforce’, highlights six sectors that have the biggest potential for growth. These include manufacturing, trade and logistics, travel and hospitality, financial services, technology and communications, and – despite a decreasing dependence on oil to support the economy – energy and petrochemicals. As traditional as the sectors may sound, a group of UAE business leaders said that the jobs across them are changing rapidly, driven by technology and the need for effective communication.191 AI companies funded in US in the last 3 months, according to Forbes

This means that graduates in the UAE must possess a strong grasp of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects, along with an effective set of communication, entrepreneurial and problem solving skills, the British Council report advised.

“Given how dynamic both the tech sector and the global economy are as a whole, it is critical that students are exposed to a broad range of subjects in order to ensure that they remain competitive,” Paul Stock, educational consultant at Hale Education Group, told Gulf News. Hale Education is a Dubai-based educational consultancy that specialises in university enrolment.


It is critical that students are exposed to a broad range of subjects to ensure they remain competitive.”
- Paul Stock | Education Consultant

“Curricula that encourage students to explore both the hard sciences, as well as subjects like English, Art, and History that encourage the development of relevant soft skills like critical thinking and reasoning, tend to produce students who are better prepared for today’s fluid economic and professional environment,” Stock added.

The popularity of curricula like the British systems, the American system and the Indian boards has not dwindled among students in the UAE. But even within these, experts advise that the students pursue a broad range of subjects that equip them with skills that can be transferred from one sector to another.

“Our most successful students blend multiple disciplines. So a future engineer took A-Level Art, a future doctor enrolled in A-Level English, an Ivy League-accepted future businessman wrote A-Level History, Math, Economics and Biology, and completed an extended project within Music Education,” Stock explained.

In fact, the need for a range of skills that are portable was emphasised at a high-level conference held in the capital in 2017 as part of the world’s largest vocational skills competition, World Skills. Experts cited American transportation entrepreneur Robin Chase’s analysis that today’s workers will hold six different jobs during their lives, even though workers only held a single job in previous generations, and that tomorrow’s workforce will have to hold down six jobs at the same time.670% increase in funding of robotics startups from 2016 ($1.9 billion) to 2017 ($15 billion) (The RobotReport)

“We need to equip our children with competencies and skills from a young age so that they can change as many jobs as they wish. And because jobs themselves are no longer guaranteed, the youth should be qualified enough to even become job-creating entrepreneurs,” said UAE Minister of Education, Hussain Al Hammadi.

This, however, does not diminish the need for subjects that support the upcoming digitisation and use of artificial intelligence at the workplace.

While schools in the UAE are aware of these future skills, many could still invest in further teacher training.”

- Hazel Raja | Assistant Dean, New York University Abu Dhabi

“Our understanding is that 50 per cent of tomorrow’s jobs will be replaced by robots, and students would do well to have the ability to build and maintain these robots, whether they are used in industry or even in new fields like museum development and the arts. As always, interpersonal skills will continue to be valuable. In addition, as the population ages globally, job opportunities will also continue to be present in the healthcare sector,” said Hazel Raja, assistant dean for students and director of the career development centre at the New York University Abu Dhabi.

“While schools in the UAE are aware of these future skills, many could still invest in further teacher training. In many cases, teachers are not equipped to adequately teach these skills or incorporate innovation into their lessons, and this needs to change,” Raja said.

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