Understanding Employability in the Context of Arabian Gulf Countries: The Case for Adapting European Education to the Local Market

Author(s):

Ingo ForstenlechnerMohammed Al Waqfi

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 04 C, Labour and Economic Impact of Education

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-28

16:00-17:30

Room:

HG, HS 48

Chair:

Jan A. Van Damme

Contribution

Employability of university graduates remains a complex and problematic area without obvious solutions in both developed nations such as the UK (Rae, 2007) as well as transitional economies such as the United Arab Emirates (Barhem, Salih, & Yousef, 2008). Similar to what happened in the UK in the late 1980s (Rae, 2007), the UAE has more recently faced a massive rise in student and graduate numbers, a multitude of new degree offerings and new universities and all this in the context of a rapidly changing economy and employment market. Recently, the Gulf countries and the UAE in particular have seen major initatives of European universities opening up branches to educate students locally rather than teach them as incoming students on their home campus. Such a localization of education requires a deeper understanding of the context of the host country and in particular issues related to employability as this is often regarded as a measure of success. Moreland (2006, p. 21) defines employability as “a set of skills, knowledge and personal attributes that make an individual more likely to secure and be successful in their chosen occupation(s) to the benefit of themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.” However, as Rae (2007) explains, a person such as a graduate is not simply a carrier of these skills, knowledge and personal attributes and other likely factors are their unique identity, personality and motivation, going beyond these personal attributes, which also are bound to change throughout the higher education experience. Further significant factors can be seen in the wider context of the degree in relation to demand from employers or the economic climate. In the context of the UAE, we aim to identify the main factors influencing employability of local students in the local labor market, thereby extending the understanding of education providers regarding tailored solutions in the education sector. Our key questions are: 1) What are the main barriers to employability? 2) How can European universities tailor their approach to local students in order to improve employability?

Method

Based on literature on employability and workforce localization, we have deployed a survey to 500 private and public sector managers and owners querying employability metrics and barriers, preceded by 10 exploratory interviews to refine the survey.

Expected Outcomes

Aiming to understand these issues is not the attempt to ease parochial challenges faced by a few rich nations as Harry (2007) argues, but also relevant to the rest of the Middle East and the wider world as other countries are facing “already high and further increasing levels of unemployment and even higher underemployment in much of Asia including the rapidly expanding economies of China, India and South East Asia” (p. 143). Similar to the UAE and the wider GCC, this results from demographic pressures, a lack of needed skills and behaviours as well as too few jobs created in the private sector. The results can be highly useful not only to educational institutions branching out to the Gulf but also to those with significant numbers of incoming Gulf students. We would expect to improve our understanding of the needs of Gulf students and their expectations towards European education providers.

References

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Author Information

Ingo Forstenlechner

United Arab Emirates University

College of Business and Economics

Al Ain

Mohammed Al Waqfi

United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates

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