A majority (53%) of employers view lack of work experience as affecting nationals’ employability, with only 30% of GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) students having taken any work experience, according to Ernst and Young (EY).
Three-quarters of the GCC employers feel the education system doesn’t know what skills employers need, EY said in a report.
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% citing job security as very important.
The survey of students and employers across the GCC was designed to identify the major challenges that employers face in hiring and retaining nationals, as well as the attitudes of young people toward employment. The results showed there is a “fundamental misalignment” between the expectations of both sides.
“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,” said Gerard Gallagher, Mena (Middle East and North Africa)
advisory services at EY.
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, he added.
EY found that in the UAE and Qatar, only 1% of the private sector workforce is made up of nationals. In Saudi Arabia, it is 18%, the highest in the GCC.
“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,” said Will Cooper, partner and Mena government social infrastructure leader at EY.
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 — but just as importantly, it must ensure that nationals have both the motivation and the skills to fill them, the report said.
In the GCC, the growing skills gap is particularly urgent because of high youth unemployment and reduced motivation to develop private sector skills.
“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,” Gallagher said.
Only through collaboration between the private sector, educators, investors, employers and young people, can governments be sure to transform its youth bulge into a demographic dividend, Cooper said.
“The education sector will need to adapt curricula and balance practical skills and academic knowledge relevant to the current and future job markets,” he added.

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