The Centre for Career Guidance and Planning (CCGP) of the National Human Resources Development and Employment Authority (Tanmia) held a three-day workshop to train 12 sociologists and psychologists drawn from different educational zones in the UAE in conducting career guidance and counselling programmes for UAE students and jobseekers.
The workshop, which concluded today at the CCGP Office in Sharjah, was held jointly with the UAE Ministry of Education. The 12 professionals were selected for the training from these two ministries.
Saif Al Noaimi, Director, CCGP said: “Effective professional counselling and career guidance are essential for moulding UAE youth into well-rounded and successful professionals. Tanmia, through the Centre for Career Guidance and Planning, has established working relationships with key institutions to provide comprehensive training in the field that will help Nationals take up appropriate professions and promote a career-oriented culture in the country.”
During the workshop, trainee counsellors were taught how to conduct career guidance and counselling programmes in schools and were given a general framework for professional and career learning that fits into Tanmia’s strategy to develop and promote career guidance in the UAE.
Through presentations, participants were shown various approaches and different stages involved in launching career guidance and counselling programmes, the practical issues that would crop up in the process, told how to coordinate with the CCGP, and were familiarized with tools and techniques for assessing candidates, identifying their professional aptitudes and relating their qualifications, interests and values to job opportunities.
Participants were acquainted with a wide range of relevant issues such as innovations in practice, programmes and training; assessment tools and techniques for the Gulf region; standards of practice; self-care for professionals; international models of practice and systems; and theoretical constructs appropriate for the Arab world.
The CCGP conducts regular workshops to improve communication between Tanmia and counsellors from the Ministry of Education. It provides necessary guidance to students and jobseekers in matching their skills with suitable careers and thus works towards furthering Tanmia’s primary goal of maximising the presence of Nationals in the UAE labour force through their gainful employment.
About Tanmia:
Tanmia, the National Human Resources Development & Employment Authority in the UAE, was established by a Presidential decree in November 1999, to address the imbalance in the labour market, due to excessive dependence on expatriate workforce. Tanmia is engaged in a coordinating role, between national job seekers and employers in the private and government sectors, to facilitate increased entry of nationals in the labour market. The responsibilities that rest with the Authority are: to set up the overall policy of the Authority and supervise its implementation, conduct sustained operational and administrative labour market studies and analysis, provide career counseling and guidance to the national work force, follow-up and evaluate employment of nationals in public and private sectors, support small investment enterprises through the establishment of self-employment projects for national human resources and develop programmes for training and qualifying nationals seeking employment, in conformity with the labour market needs.
