Priority on jobs for UAE local women - Khaleej Times

DUBAI — A majority of UAE national graduates are women and the government’s priority is to provide them jobs, Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the Minister of Education, has said.

“The majority of UAE national graduates are females and securing career opportunities for them is a priority. Women graduates must know that we are committed to providing them with excellent education and training programmes which one of our most important goals,” Shaikh Nahyan, who is also the Chancellor of Higher Colleges of Technology, told a conference here yesterday titled ‘Women in IT Leading Change’, organised by the Dubai Women's College.

The following makes plain UAE graduates expect to be paid more than nonnationals:

On the major challenges facing fresh UAE graduates in joining the workforce, he said: “On joining the workforce, the UAE nationals face unfair competition from employees of various nationalities, who are earning comparatively lower salaries [than UAE nationals expect]. Fresh UAE national graduates with no prior work experience have certain expectations regarding salary and benefits and finds it hard to compete with their counterparts of other nationalities.”

Al Nahyan noted that unemployment among UAE nationals is unacceptable in a country that depends heavily on expatriate workforce.

“The UAE nationals should enter the private sector and should meet their employers’ needs and expectations."

That is, their employers' needs and expectations with regard to work, not pay.