Dubai Tourism Rolls out Range of Online Courses to Provide Staff an Opportunity to Acquire New Skills

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), is offering its employees the opportunity to add value to their professional careers and broaden their skill sets through a range of online courses, while they continue to work from home due to the unprecedented situation caused by COVID-19.

Offered in both Arabic and English languages, the courses can be accessed via the online platform of Dubai College of Tourism (DCT), an institution established and mandated by Dubai Tourism to provide vocational and tertiary education, specifically for Emiratis and expatriates who are keen to take up a career in tourism or be employed in tourist-facing roles across various sectors.  With a specially curated curriculum that meets the needs of both students and future employers, DCT courses move away from the traditional academic university programmes to provide a hands-on approach that is unrivalled within the industry. 

With the office environment going virtual during the current period, the entire Dubai Tourism workforce is taking some time out from their busy work schedules to enroll for courses of their choice on DCT’s online platform. Over 30 per cent of the workforce is engaged in following the courses on a daily basis with course completion rates reaching 85 per cent. This figure easily surpasses the global average of less than 10 per cent for online learning course completion. Participants can choose from 50 different courses offering over 500 hours of learning content in the areas of business, digital marketing and the recently introduced Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Teams and the ‘Working remotely from home’ course. The diverse topics include Google Analytics for Beginners, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, Business Writing, Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity, Information Security Awareness and Break the Chain of COVID-19.

Essa Bin Hadher, General Manager of Dubai College of Tourism, said:  “We are encouraged by the huge response from our staff to the online courses. While employees wait to go back to the physical work environment, we hope they can make use of the time for virtual learning to enhance their knowledge and skills in various fields that are driving so much of today’s business and digital transformation. With all employees of Dubai Tourism currently working from home it is easier for them to adapt to the new technologies that drive our e-learning platform.  Our online programmes were already well established long before the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, so we also have the necessary training expertise to extend this educational offering to our own employees during this time of social distancing, and also contribute towards overall staff development at Dubai Tourism.”

DCT, which is accredited by the Knowledge & Human Development Authority (KHDA), also conducts the Medyaf programme, an industry nationalisation initiative that aims to attract and train various segments of Emiratis including high school graduates and university students, as well as job seekers in the UAE. While increasing awareness of Dubai’s tourism sector amongst Emiratis, the initiative also offers strong career options in other sectors that have tourist-facing roles with the goal of creating a more indigenous experience for tourists that will further enhance the city’s tourism offering.