I Propose: Vocational Education
One thing that I notice is common across the GCC is the substandard level of education. Ok, so the rumor might be true that perhaps 20-30% of all of Dubai's taxi drivers (just a random made up statistic) may have a degree in Law or in Accounting, but the only way they can make money quickly is to come to the UAE so they can feed their family back home…
And it might be true that that Filipino hair dresser might be skilled in C++ and speak about 50 other different computing languages but still all he does is cut hair on the weekdays and blow ****s on the weekend just to get money and a little bit of extra wasta, so it makes me want to know what is the point of higher education and why does it become irrelevant in the Gulf?
Everyone knows the saying 'a mind is a terrible thing to waste' but so is 'time' and it is clear that a normal bachelor degree doesn’t benefit a person except that he has to have extra bills to pay and less free time to have. No? And what is the point of studying, getting highly educated and then coming to the UAE just to work in shitty low wage job. Ya3ny AED 1000 dihrams a month doing data entry despite being trained to run an entire human resources department is embarrassing.
Plus on another point, there is no point to these degrees if you have no wisdom on how to use it, so as a result we have some people *Coughs 'Locals'* who are too dumb too stupid who earn double some asian expats do but are only half as educated. I think the education system is very lacking and you can feel how bad it is when you deal with people on a professional level everyday. It doesn’t matter if they are expats or locals it seems that knowledge is nothing without wisdom.
I propose that unless you are going to take your education to the next level (like yours truly) and get a Masters or Phd and make some real benefit then don’t do a degree…just get some vocational training because a) that degree isn’t helping you in your current career and b) vocational training will actually make you better at your job. No?
Example: Customer services in the government sector work are poor. Vocational education is needed here. Ya3ny whether it is here in Saudi or in the UAE you should be trained to know that when the phone rings you pick it up. Yes I know I know… it is a radical idea to actually answer phones instead of letting them ring and ring while you file your nails or fix your hyjab for the 100th time or just talk to your girlfriends on the Messenger or mobile phone; but you are getting paid for the 3 hours that you are at work. Plus, when you answer it should be 'saba' or 'misa'khair' or 'salam'u'laikum' not 'Aaaaaaa?' Like we interrupted you from something more important like your gossiping. So damn unprofessional.
But it's not just the Locals. It’s the expats aswell. Ok I know you have a First Class IT degree from Bombay University but does it makes sense when you are packing my bags in Spinnys to give me 50 different bags for each individual item??? Have you ever heard about saving the environment?? Two big bags can be enough…not one bag for drinks, one bag for tined food, one bag for chips and chocolates, one bag for vegetables, one bag for everything else etc etc Khalas. Vocational education for how to pack bags is necessary because I cannot count the amount of times I have stopped the bag packer from doing his job and done it myself because his way of doing it was taking too long. Besides the last thing I need when I got home is another 50 plastic bags from Spinneys to add to my collection of 3 thousand bright yellow bags we already have stored in the cupboard.
Emiratisation will continue to be a joke if some basic logical concepts in good training are not applied. Let us stop the buying of degrees and the importing of so many expats and start training our nationals in skills they really need, whether that be in top government positions or 'low' shop service skills.
posted by Jassim @ 10:57 PM
Comments: 8
