The head of a technical skills competition to be held in Abu Dhabi in the autumn believes Emiratis can will be attracted to less conventional jobs and exposed to traditional trades.
Emirates Skills chief executive Ali Al Marzouqi said that from bakers to aviation technicians, there will be a greater push toward getting young people trained, giving them more options for their future employment.
He was speaking as Abu Dhabi prepared to host World Skills in October, which is set to attract more than 50,000 school pupils from around the country.
They will be in the audiences as 1,300 participants from more than 70 countries take on 51 challenges.
This will include competitions to find the best florist, the most outstanding carpenter, patisserie chef and mechanic.
Other contests include challenge robotics and web designers.
Major companies will sent recruiters to the event and they will be looking to identify the brightest in their chosen fields during the event, which takes place between October 15 and 18 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
Mr Al Marzooqi said: "We will begin to see Emiratis in new fields.
"They are getting more exposure to vocational skills, and we are providing them with all the expertise and knowledge they need for that."
Earlier this year, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, told young people at the Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis for Future Generations event to think beyond "comfortable" government jobs and to compete with the rest of the world.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, told the same event that said the country needed a "generation of engineers".
Those goals are part of a broader drive to encourage pupils to pursue science and technology in school and on to university.
Mr Al Marzooqi said that learning the ropes in for a hands-on, skilled job could present opportunities.
"A person might think, okay I know how to cook, but the question is how accurately are you cooking," he said.
"Observers are testing every single detail – like putting this type of baking powder before this on."
Similarly, a student competing for the florist category "will learn not only how to arrange a flower bouquet, but how to arrange for weddings, funerals, like how to do a flower arch, or the red roses heart they use for Valentine's."
"So when he or she comes out of the competition, he or she has all the skills of the profession and can go ahead and open their own shop."
Along with what are essentially hands-on trades, there are also technical categories such as robotics, mechanical engineering and information technology and cabling – will be a catch for companies who go to World Skills to recruit talents.
A contestant in IT will have to connect computers to printers on the first day of the competition. The next day, his task will be to add cameras, the third day to make the network more complicated and so on.
"So by the end of the four days, it is like he set up an entire office," said Mr Al Marzouqi.
Looking for Emirati contestants in some fields was not an easy job.
For instance, organisers could not find any Emirati aged between 17 and 22 to run for the physiotherapy category, despite the fact that the only time the UAE won a World Skills medal was in physiotherapy.
"It does not mean that there is no Emirati physiotherapist, but there aren't any that fit the age requirement," he said.
Participating in World Skills will benefit education. The latest technologies and tools purchased for the contest will be distributed to schools and universities. This will provide wider training and learning opportunities for youngsters, the organiser said.
Hosting the event will also provide a major boost for tourism. More than 30 hotels have been booked by participants.
"And many of them are accompanied by family members and crews and even the press, so they will be exploring Abu Dhabi and the country as well," said Mr Al Marzooqi.
"There will be a section where you can try your skills, so if a member of the public likes what he sees and wants to try for themselves, then they can," said Mr Al Marzouqi.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
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Three trading apps to try
Sharad Nair recommends three investment apps for UAE residents:
- For beginners or people who want to start investing with limited capital, Mr Nair suggests eToro. “The low fees and low minimum balance requirements make the platform more accessible,” he says. “The user interface is straightforward to understand and operate, while its social element may help ease beginners into the idea of investing money by looking to a virtual community.”
- If you’re an experienced investor, and have $10,000 or more to invest, consider Saxo Bank. “Saxo Bank offers a more comprehensive trading platform with advanced features and insight for more experienced users. It offers a more personalised approach to opening and operating an account on their platform,” he says.
- Finally, StashAway could work for those who want a hands-off approach to their investing. “It removes one of the biggest challenges for novice traders: picking the securities in their portfolio,” Mr Nair says. “A goal-based approach or view towards investing can help motivate residents who may usually shy away from investment platforms.”
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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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