The UAE is a small capital-rich country short in indigenous manpower, both skilled and unskilled. However, it has an unlimited supply of foreign manpower. Indigenes constitute about a fourth of the population, one tenth of the total workforce, but only 2% of the industrial workforce. Industrialization is the main avenue for development and in the post-oil era various public sector projects have been set up including oil refineries, gas liquefaction plants, a fertilizer plant, an aluminium smelter and cement factories, as well as smaller private sector factories for building materials, consumer and food products, etc. Industries suffer from local competition due to duplication of projects caused by lack of co-ordination between the emirates and from foreign competition due to lack of protection since the State has a free trade policy. Although industries do not suffer from manpower shortages, the lack of indigenous skilled manpower is a national problem since the industrial sector is controlled by foreigners. Xoreover, one of the aims of industrialization should be the development of a skilled national workforce that can generate the national income after the oil is exhausted. The rapid expansion in education has been with little planning. There has also been little economic and work-market planning and no co-ordination with educational planning. Government guarantees jobs to uni versi ty graduates at above market wages as a welfare-oriented oil income distribution policy. Therefore, local graduates avoid working for industry, particularly the private sector. There are only 3 industrial schools and industrial students equal 2% of general secondary education students. Furthermore, industrial school graduates work mainly for employers s~ch as the police and army and often not in their specialiZations. The UAE has thus failed to develop productive human resources and to benefit from its industrial education which is more expensive than general education.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:329616 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Ghanem, Shihab M. A. |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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