The Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR) confirmed that work is underway ,within the federal government in general and the Authority in particular, to satisfy the aspirations and expectations of the wise leadership of the UAE, headed by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan; the President of the state ( May Allah protect Him) and his brother, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum; Vice President, Prime Minster and Ruler of Dubai ( May Allah protect Him) relating to the Portfolio of nationalization within the federal government.
The Authority indicated that it perceive this portfolio as top strategic priority and a national issue par excellence. The Authority devotes its utmost importance, more than ever before, to this issue, especially after the launch of the national agenda for the UAE state for the coming seven years by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum; Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai( may Allah protect Him) .
The Authority is closely following the implementation of the Ministerial Decision for services No.(1/1k/1) for the year 2014, regarding nationalization of human resources within the federal government sector , whereby the Authority was entrusted with the task of coordinating between federal ministries and entities to work out and submit a work plan for every entity concerning job vacancies available for national job seekers in federal entities, including classifying the positions and titles of each job.
The Authority emphasized that its role encompasses setting out nationalization policies and measurement indicators , as well as nationalization targets within federal entities together with submitting recommendations that would support federal entities endeavors to accomplish their targets and , of course, preparation and submission of reports on nationalization to higher competent authorities.
The Authority has approached federal ministries and entities to provide it with their nationalizations plans and granted these entities the power to determine their own nationalization targets and the type of jobs set aside for nationals within the organizational structure of each federal entity. This is to be done in order to raise the percentage of nationals working within the federal government sector without jeopardizing the interests or the performance of these entities.
The authority stated that nationalization within federal government portfolio follows three tracks: the fast track is concerned with executive job positions at a time framework of two years; medium track, for technical and specialized jobs with a time framework of between 3 to 4 years and finally the long-term track, for medical and ancillary medical jobs together with jobs within the educational sector including educational supporting jobs, with a time framework extending for between 5 to 8 years.
Ms. Amna Al-Sewaidi ; director of the Department of Human Resources Planning within FAHR, gave further details by saying that 20 ministries and federal entities out of the 39 entities have already submitted their nationalization plans for replacing expatriate workforce with nationals including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.
She pointed out that most of the delivered plans set the target of raising the percentage of nationalization within the technical and specialized job categories within the federal government. This clearly reflects the keenness of these entities to avail national work force to fill such jobs. She went on to explain that these entities have relied on a number of inputs when preparing their plans, such as the “Masar Program”, which is intended for taking care of secondary school national graduates within the government sector. This program was launched in 2010 by a Cabinet Decision and applied on local scholarship offered by various federal government ministries, entities and authorities.
Amna Al- Sewaidi had this to say: “ Our success in implementing nationalization plans set out by federal entities within the specific time frames hinges entirely on the strict adherence of these entities to their adopted plans and providing enough budgets for implementing these plans” She went on to add : “Through our various meetings with representatives of federal government ministries and entities , we have come to identify a number of challenges facing the implementation of the nationalization portfolio within the federal sector. Probably, the most notable challenges, to mention but a few, are the scarcity of technical jobs within the labor market; the lack of sufficient budgets for employing nationals due to high competition within the labor market; the difficulty in attracting qualified national cadres because of the high competition and the big difference between high Abu Dhabi salary offers and federal government payment scale , in addition to the fact that most technical and specialized jobs ask for huge financial resources for training and empowering national staff.”
Last February, the Authority has organized a workshop on “Discussion of Nationalization Targets within the Federal Government Sector”. The workshop was attended by representatives from 35 independent federal authorities. Before that, in last January, the Authority held a meeting with four federal ministries (namely Finance, Health, Education, and the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department). The meeting reviewed the means and mechanisms for implementing the ministerial decision and shed light on the most prominent challenges facing the nationalization portfolio. Another meeting was held, of late, with representatives of higher education federal institutions within the UAE; namely the UAE University, Zayed University and the High Colleges of Technology, to discuss the role of those institutions in the process of nationalizing the teaching and supporting educational staff.