Education key to construction skills crisis

Centre, right: PwC Middle East Intelligence research and survey unit director Anne Simon.

Just 20% of Gulf CEOs believe there is a sufficient supply of skilled nationals according to a new study.

Over 600 CEOs, including 75 from the construction, engineering and real estate industry were interviewed as part of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation survey, the Arab Human Capital Challenge.

The report revealed that the GCC is suffering the most from an insufficient supply of skilled labour after 91% of CEOs in the Gulf, who took part in the study, agreed that there is a strong reliance on expatriates.

In a conference held last week, which aimed to address the study, leading business professionals raised concerns that there is a poor curricular and lack of educational institutions in the Gulf.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT The report has to cover the issue from all aspects. I do agree on the contents, but there are many other factors to be c   1 Comments Read more comments »

Speaking to CW, PwC Middle East Intelligence research and survey unit director Anne Simon commented on the lack of skills in the construction sector in particular.

“There are still not enough schools, universities and a proper curricular. Today I doubt that there are many programmes teaching about construction and engineering in the Middle East,” she said. “There is also very little vocational training here.”

Simon revealed at The Voice of the CEOs conference that 79% of Saudi Arabian CEOs, 56% of UAE CEOs and 68% of Bahraini CEOs involved in the study believed that the Arab curricular is based on theoretical knowledge rather than practicality.

“There is a misconception in the Middle East that vocational training is wrong and education should be based on theoretical teaching,” she said. “It’s not just about doing the ‘right’ job such as becoming a doctor, but doing a job with passion.”

The report showed that many CEOs agreed the region has also been ineffective in creating jobs for young people.

“Almost 50% of the GCC’s population is under 25,” said Kuwait’s Global Investment House CEO Maha Al Ghunaim. “If such manpower is employed suitably it would accelerate growth significantly. Thus over the years, creating job opportunities to such young and rapidly growing population is a huge challenge.”

Two years on since the study started, Simon now believes that bridging the skills gap is more important than ever, due to the financial crisis.

“This is a very competitive environment and during these hard times talent is essential to business leaders, whichever industry you’re in.  Unless we develop our resources we won’t be able to sustain.”

The Arab Human Capital Challenge was based on 587 survey results and 40 in-depth interviews with CEOs across 12 industries and 18 Arab countries.