Golfregion: Arbeitgeber sehen Ursache für Fachkräftemangel in der Ausbildung

GCC employers say education to blame for skills shortage

Three quarters of employers in the GCC feel the region's education system is failing to equip students with the skills needed to be successful in work, according to a new report.

According to Ernst & Young (EY), its survey of Gulf-based students and employers, which aimed to identify the major challenges that employers face in hiring and retaining nationals, showed that there is a fundamental misalignment between the expectations of both sides.

The survey also showed that in the UAE and Qatar, only one percent of the private sector workforce is made up of nationals. In Saudi Arabia, the figure is 18 percent, the highest in the GCC.

It revealed that employers struggle to retain nationals due to high salary expectations, while also ranking young people's lack of work experience, communications skills, and required skills and qualifications as further challenges to retention in the private sector.

The report indicated that the top three priorities for GCC students when taking a job are money, job security and work-life balance.

Almost three-quarters of GCC students put salary packages at the top of the list of what they consider very important in a job, followed by 59 percent citing job security as very important.

Gerard Gallagher, MENA [Middle East and North Africa] Advisory Services, EY, said: "Despite the efforts in the Gulf region to improve the education systems, there remains a misalignment of the needs of employers and the expectations of young people, that makes it hard to improve outcomes.

"Employers struggle to find the skills they need, especially at entry level, and young people in schools, colleges and universities are unclear about how they should enter the job market and build a long-term career, and teachers are unsure about labour market demands and why they are important to incorporate into the curricula they teach."

Will Cooper, partner and MENA Government Social Infrastructure leader, EY, added: "There is an urgent need to get more GCC nationals working in the private sector. The old model of employing nationals in high-paying government jobs is no longer sustainable; budgets are strained and government businesses struggle to become more efficient.

"It has an impact on the private sector too, which relies heavily on expatriates for its workforce."

The report said that if the GCC is to employ the fast-growing number of young nationals entering the labour market and remain competitive, it needs to create more jobs in the private sector and it must ensure that nationals have both the motivation and the skills to fill them.

EY said that in the GCC, the growing skills gap is particularly urgent because youth unemployment is already high.

EY's survey of students and employers across the GCC showed that, outside of Bahrain, GCC students show an overwhelming preference for public sector jobs.

"This mind-set has to change to stop the unemployment rate escalating in the medium to long term, and to enable the successful diversification of the economy away from dependence on oil and gas revenues. The priority now is to prepare and equip young people for the workplace before they become job seekers, ensuring alignment between education and training and employers' needs," said Gallagher.