Key industry professionals, government officials and academics recently gathered to discuss the existing and emerging skills gaps within the UAE’s tourism and hospitality industry.
The discussion facilitated by Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) debated the findings of a Workforce Planning Study by Deloitte involving 2400 students, which sheds light on the problems corporates experience in finding suitable candidates for junior positions.
The debate also revealed difficulties in achieving emiratisation targets in the hospitality sector as the industry continues to be perceived as an ‘unsuitable’ profession amongst the local population.
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The research, which surveyed students from the UAE, China, India, South African and Nigeria in addition to 235 corporates from 11 sectors revealed a clear skills gap in the industry.
While the top three skills in demand in the industry were unveiled as public relations management, event management and F&B management, the survey showed skills gaps in some or all of these areas within each segment of senior, mid and entry-level employees.
In addition, while students in the Levant region favour a degree in Tourism and Hospitality, those from the GCC and sub continents prefer banking, finance and IT leading to a shortage of local candidates in the recruitment market.
The panel agreed that tackling this problem would require a tailored educational offering from the region’s academic partners and training institutes “providing a new formula within a new system,” in collaboration with the government, as well as a new approach from hoteliers, currently struggling to compete with sectors such as finance for recruits from local communities.
Jumeirah Group’s vice president of human resources, Matthew Mee said that within the company this problem was already being addressed “by selling a career rather than a salary”.
The company, which is part owned by Dubai Holding, has been looking at allowances for different nationalities as well as working hours to “ensure it had the right blend of compensation, which allowed it to be competitive and attractive in the right areas.”
The panel concluded that hospitality’s label as an ‘unsuitable’ profession amongst emirates would be difficult to change, and that local’s perception of hotels as a “place to drink” was a key reason why travel and tourism courses in the UAE struggled to attract students.
Even with education, changing this label was expected to be 10 years away and requires a long-term strategy.
According to Dr. Ayoub Kazim, managing director of Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge village more than 383,000 jobs were supported by the travel industry in the region last year and that number Is expected to grow 2.6% this year.
“The demand for skilled workers has never been higher and we feel it is our role, as a home for the region’s education and training institutes to facilitate a more coordinated approach between academia and industry,” he said.
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May 20, 2013 , Pakistan
The general perception about Hotel Jobs is low because a common person who utilizes hotel services in any form sees the, calm, smooth and simple ways that seems to run the show in any hotel. Having worked in a five star hotel myself, I found that once these people are exposed to behind the scen...
May 20, 2013 , China
That was a great effort done by industry's senior leaders. But why no one is ready to discuss and reveal the actual reason. I have mentioned on several occasions that we are lacking in skilled people because we want to hire people with right PASSPORT. Before we look at skills we ask for the Natio...