Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), a leading smelter, recruited 110 UAE nationals during 2012, at a cost – comprising salaries, benefits and training – of Dh25 million ($6.8 million), said a top official.

The total accumulative number of new Emirati recruits hired by Dubal since 2008 reached 496 with the recruitments of 2012, added Sultan Al Sabri, vice president, Human Resources & Organisation Effectiveness.

Ongoing investment in skills development and training resulted in 9.96 training days per UAE National employee in 2012 (up from 9.13 training days in 2011), he explained.

“The recruitment component of our National Emiratisation Policy is driven largely by Dubal’s dedicated National Development Programmes, where Dubal uniquely offers skills development, training and employment opportunities to UAE Nationals at all levels in the secondary and tertiary education spectrum,” said Al Sabri.

“These programmes fall within two main categories. First, high school leavers have the opportunity to enrol for Dubal’s Pre-employment Courses (PECs), which provide theoretical knowledge and practical on-the-job work experience through a combination of formal classroom teaching and hands-on technical training; while earning a salary and enjoying additional employment benefits.

“On completion of their respective programmes, PEC graduates are offered full-time employment at Dubal. Four PEC programmes are offered, namely Smelter, Power/Desalination, Technical and Apprenticeship – the programmes ranging from six months to two years in duration,” he added.

“Second, selected university graduates are employed as participants in Dubal’s Graduate Trainee (GT) Programme – an 18-month on-the-job training programme that equips them to assume a role as one of Dubal’s first line supervisors. Typically, our GTs hold qualifications in engineering, finance/accounting, business administration, marketing, human resources and information technology.”

Al Sabri added that Dubal aims to recruit a further 200 UAE Nationals in 2013, and is on track to achieve this target: by end-April, 51 UAE Nationals had been employed.

“As always, Dubal uses virtually every opportunity to engage UAE Nationals in our country’s working population,” he said.

“This includes our active participation in the ‘career day’ events held at the UAE’s universities and higher colleges as well as the annual Careers UAE exhibition, held in Dubai; and through Dubal hosting ‘open days’ at our Jebel Ali site for selected educational institutes and UAE National employment organisations.

In addition, our website will soon feature a facility for prospective UAE National employees to apply online to participate in our PEC and GT programmes, or for job vacancies within Dubal. Together, these initiatives should yield the targeted number of new UAE National employees at Dubal,” Al Sabri concluded. – TradeArabia News Service