On the Job Training
Two recent articles in the Dubai press stress the importance of job training at both ends of the labor pool. Regarding the shallow end we have this Gulf News story, "Dubai Central Jail inmates learn how to repair vehicles"
Inmates at Dubai Central jail learn how to repair vehicles as part of the jail's rehabilitation programme, a senior police official said. Brigadier Khamis Saeed Al Suwaidi, Acting Director of Dubai Police's Punitive and Correctional Establishments, said the department is keen on rehabilitation programmes that will help inmates after they are freed. He said the education and training department at the jail organised the vocational course in cooperation with the Al Futtaim training centre. The course targeted 14 UAE national inmates. All passed the course and six were released from jail. The inmates have secured jobs as helpers at Al Futtaim as soon as they had taken the course and received the certificates. Lieutenant Colonel Tariq Kalentar, Director of Dubai Central Jail, said many inmates showed interest in taking the course. However, the 14 were selected based on interviews, their behaviour and their English language proficiency.
And in the deep end of the talent pool we have AMEInfo reporting on the launch of Standard Charter's Graduate Career Development Program:
Standard Chartered, one of the leading international banks in the UAE, has launched two new development programmes to attract high-level graduates to careers within the Bank. 'The Al Tahadi Educational Support Programme provides a monthly financial support to selected UAE national students until they graduate,' explains Aida Hamza, Standard Chartered Head of Emiratisation, UAE. The International Graduate Programme is a two-year development programme that has been active globally and only set to launch in this region at the end of October, specifically designed to develop a robust pipeline of diverse, potential future leaders for the Bank. ... (the IGP) provides graduates of all nationalities with an opportunity to train in a specific function department (wholesale banking or consumer banking) at the Bank after graduation, fast-tracking them for success on an international career path.'
Commentary
Though the education and skills, the nature of the work, and the height of the career of these two groups couldn't be more different, there are a few common themes.
1) Implicit in both programs is the recognition that many human beings, perhaps most, are inherently motivated to improve their lot in life. No matter at what station one finds him or herself, no matter what successes or failures have been incurred along the way, there is an impulse towards betterment, one that skilled managers and trainers are wise to cultivate.
2) Both programs operate on the well-founded premise that training and development enhances retention. Standard Chartered clearly hopes that the fast-tracking and high-level exposure that it will provide its young bankers will be rewarded with both better on-the-job performance and higher loyalty. Standard Chartered wants these future leaders to lead there, not at the competition. The good folks at al-Futtaim and the Dubai Police want to reduce recidivism, i.e. to reduce the likelihood that the men will lead a life of crime. They want their men to return to society and to stay there.
3) Also, note the high degree of specificity of the training. The inmates are taught auto repair in a course "taught by instructors from Al Futtaim Training Centre for two-and-a-half months. The participants received theoretical and practical lessons for five hours, four days in a week." The junior bankers get two years of training in a "specific function(al) department." That both training programs emphasize depth of skills over breadth suggests that strong and demonstrated functional expertise is the first, and perhaps the foremost, rung on both groups' career ladders.
File Under: Dubai
Tags: Dubai| UAE | work release | job training
See also: Prison programs give real-life job training: Help inmates return to society | Real-world job training cuts the odds of returning to prison | Jail or Job Training?