Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council’s Strategies For Getting Great Results With Emiratization

The Nafis Programme has achieved a highly inspiring 70 percent increase in the number of Emiratis being appointed in the Private Sector of UAE during 2022. Dr Abdulrahman Al Awar, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation announced the 2022 outcome of the Nafis Programme at a media conference on Thursday. It was also attended by Ghannam Al Mazrouei, Secretary-General of the Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council (ETCC) and other officials. 

About Emiratization

The impressive share of Emiratisation is the result of the strategic integration of the ETCC which is headed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court. The ETCC also works under the directives of the UAE’s wise leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Ruler of Dubai.

The media briefing also spoke on the future plans of the Nafis programme for 2023 which was decided by the Council’s Board of Directors after their meeting chaired by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court and Chairman of the Board of Directors and in the presence of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. 

Al Awar praised the efforts of the ETCC in bringing about a huge change in the employment dynamics of the UAE with the presence of more Emiratis in the private economic sector. This also directly influences the creation of new employment opportunities for the Emirati community as this is considered one of the top priorities of the UAE administration. The growth in the private sector also translated to better GDP performance for the Emirate nation in 2022.

Al Awar assured that the UAE administration is confident in developing the economic development of the country by identifying a mutually cooperative environment for both public and private sectors to work in parallel. This would also enable the economy to perform at a robust level while integrating the Emirati labor force into the market, particularly into the private sector. An overall outlook of these measures would be to have Emiratis as the top priority while making any sort of government policy decisions. 

According to the new objectives of the Nafis Programme 2023, it aims to create a total of 24,000 new jobs for Emiratis in the private sector. The totally unexpected and mind-blowing result of the 2022 Nafis Programme was because of the timely strategies introduced by the ETCC that ensured the proper identification of Emirati talent and their inclusion into a sustainable job structure inside the Private sector.

These strategies together with the supportive policies helped the private sector also to create a high economic performance and growth last year. The UAE economy was one of the very few economies in 2022 that was unperturbed by the global economic slowdown or the pandemic issue and showed a steady increase in its performance throughout the year.

Some of the key policies that were introduced in 2022 by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation are the introductions of Federal Decree-Law No.33 of 2021, Cabinet Resolution No.18 of 2022, the launch of the new unemployment insurance scheme and the Wage Protection Scheme (Second phase).

All these strategies ensured that the work environment in the UAE is on par with international employment standards and progressive policies like the unemployment insurance scheme further reified the employment structure of the nation. 

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On the other side, strict measures were taken to prevent the misuse of the Nafis programme by companies and individuals. Fines and prison terms were part of the punishments given to people who broke the law and tried to exploit the Emiratisation programme by faking documents or by creating forged employment details regarding Emirati appointments. As per the Emiratisation rules, any private company with a labor force of more than fifty has to employ Emiratis at two percent of its total employee count.

The total target of this is to reach ten percent of Emiratis of the total employee count by 2026. In order to assist the private sector in this endeavour, the UAE administration has provided various assistive services through the Nafis Programme. They include the establishment of recruitment portals; apprenticeship programmes intended for talent development; career counselling for Emiratis to help them make efficient career decisions etc.

The UAE government would also offer pension subsidies to Emiratis earning less than AED 20,000 per month for the first five years of employment and other allowances like Child allowance and Unemployment benefits that can be claimed for up to a period of six months. The ETCC had been created as a supporting structure to monitor and facilitate these programmes created under the Nafis Programme.