UAE to open training centres for labourers in India

In an effort to control the flow of unskilled workers into the country’s construction sector and to bypass private recruitment agencies, the UAE will be setting up training centres in their home countries, Gulf News English daily reported on Tuesday.

“The UAE will start by opening an office in India in early 2013 to train and rehabilitate workforce,” said Saeed Abdullah, the National Productivity Improvement Programme manager at the Federal Demographic Council (FDC), adding that the proportion of unskilled labour in the construction industry is about 85 per cent.

He added that the “first batch of [trained] workers will be 5,000 in the first year, 20,000 in 2014 and 50,000 in 2015”.

“The UAE government seeks to reduce the number of unskilled workers in the construction sector which employs the highest number of unskilled workers,” he said.

He said that the workers will have to bear the cost of the training estimated to be up to Dh6,000, but will no longer have to pay thousands of dirhams to private recruitment agents. While India will be the first country where such training centres will be established, Pakistan and Bangladesh will follow.

Last year, the UAE government instructed relevant labour market bodies to set minimum qualifications for some jobs, starting with the construction sector.

These qualifications have to be approved by the FDC chairman.

The council of ministers also instructed relevant bodies to lay down a general construction index containing a number of technical criteria for higher productivity in this sector, as well as decreasing the number of unskilled workers in accordance with laws that assist contracting companies to use advanced technologies in construction.

The cabinet also instructed all relevant bodies to draw up economic plans and follow up on the UAE's workforce by approving a balanced growth pattern that is characterised by economic diversity, relying on a skilled workforce and modern technology.
 

The council of ministers also instructed all bodies concerned to abide by these resolutions, and mandated the FDC to implement the resolutions in coordination with relevant bodies.
 

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