The education system in the Gulf is failing and leaving Arab businesses trailing behind the rest of the emerging markets, a panel of regional business leaders has warned GCC governments.
According to experts the Gulf will need to create 100 million jobs by 2030 but its education system is failing to produce students of the right calibre for business, the four men and one woman panel concluded.
Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, speaker of the house at the Federal National Council and CEO of Mashreq told delegates that the challenge would not be to fill 100 million jobs, but to find 100 million employable candidates to fill the positions.
“Most college graduates we see are not fit for international standards and we have had to lower our standards and give them a year’s worth of training to make sure they are fit for the jobs we have.”
Mutlaq Al Morished, vice president of corporate finance at Saudi petrochemicals giant SABIC said that there were “too many bureaucratic restrictions” and that it was “much easier” for him to export to China rather than Arab countries.
“According to McKinsey there is not one single Arab university In the top universities in the world, not one. In fact we are bottom of that list and our standards are way below those of the names in that list. We are sending students to the US to study but how many companies can do that?” he said.
“What the economy needs and what the education sector is producing is something else,” he added.
Shaikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al Khalifa, chief executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board urged Arab countries and its nationals to “move away from an entitlement culture”.
“It is important to create management skills but we must not also forget how important vocational skills are. They are the lifeblood of our economies. What is limiting us today is finding the right people with the right skills.
This lower to middle level is the problem and to change this we need to improve our education systems. Every Gulf country is investing in education but it will take time to see the results materialise,” he added.
Al Ghurair added: “Let’s remove ourselves from being comfortable. We need to groom our students and urge them to take risks.”
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