Education
From The Report: Abu Dhabi 2017
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With the UAE’s 2021 Golden Jubilee celebrations just four years away, the education sector in Abu Dhabi is closing in on achievement targets that will be used as key performance indicators of national transformation. Launched in 2010, the UAE’s Vision 2021 set a challenge to create a competitive knowledge economy and a first-rate education system that is ranked among the best in the world by international indices. While these targets may serve as useful reference points for educators, those administering the education sector in Abu Dhabi also have broader aspirations to ensure that the emirate’s growing numbers of classrooms, lecture theatres and laboratories nurture the skills, aptitudes and attitudes that today’s pupils and students will need in tomorrow’s world.

This chapter contains an interview with Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Higher Education.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Learning curve: Ambitious programmes and concrete goals are pushing the emirate forward
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With the UAE’s 2021 Golden Jubilee celebrations just four years away, the education sector in Abu Dhabi is closing in on achievement targets that will be used as key performance indicators of national transformation. Launched in 2010 the UAE’s Vision 2021 set a challenge to create a competitive knowledge economy and a first-rate education system that is ranked among the best in the world by international indices. While these targets may serve as useful reference points for educators,…

Interview

Preparing for the future: Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Higher Education, on equipping university graduates with necessary skills
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Interview: Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi What steps are being taken to better align graduates’ skills with the needs of the labour market? AHMAD BELHOUL AL FALASI: The Ministry of Education recognises that today’s labour market is constantly changing and that it is integral to stay ahead of the curve in order to ensure that we are graduating the talent needed to succeed in the private sector. Keeping this objective at the forefront, we will be establishing a private sector council that will focus…

Analysis

At a premium: Private institutions are becoming increasingly popular at the K-12 level
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With a burgeoning school-age population and parents increasingly prepared to invest in education, the private school sector in Abu Dhabi is set for a period of growth and expansion. A total of 11 newly approved schools opened in the 2015/16 academic year, with a further nine expected to open during the 2016/17 school year, providing an additional 21,800 seats. The Abu Dhabi Education Council’s Private School and Quality Assurance (PSQA) sector 2015/16 annual report shows that by 2020, 283,798…

Analysis

Pushing forward: A new merger should unlock potential and encourage more Emiratis to consider the private sector
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Three of the leading lights in Abu Dhabi’s higher education sphere came together in 2017 to create the Khalifa University of Science and Technology. The fusion of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, the Petroleum Institute (PI) and Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (KU) is a recipe for multi-disciplinary research across the fields of energy, renewables and engineering. In October 2016 Hussain Al Hammadi, federal minister of education, who spoke at an education…

Analysis

Planning ahead: New strategies will be needed for an increasingly high-tech job market
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Scientists at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, prior to its merger in early 2017, were adapting the latest data mining techniques to predict how job markets will evolve in the face of digitisation and automation of workplace functions. The answers they find could be vital to the emirate’s leaders and should provide young people at the start of their careers with a roadmap for success. However, as with many economies around the world, there are signs in the data on unemployment…