Abu Dhabi Education Council to Create 700 Jobs for 700 Emiratis

Abu Dhabi Education Council

Almost 700 jobs for Emiratis could be created under plans by the Abu Dhabi Education Council to employ UAE nationals as school bus supervisors.

“Adec is keen to Emiratise the bus supervisor position in a 100 per cent capacity,” Mohammed Al Dhaheri, executive director of school operations at Adec, said yesterday.

“We are working closely with the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council to reach the desired target.”

If successful, the plan would create 678 jobs for Emiratis.

Adec runs 1,791 school buses in the capital, and will add 76 for the coming school year to serve new areas such as New Al Falah.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, designated this year the “year of Emiratisation”.

The initiative follows an effort by the Ministry of Social Affairs to attract unemployed Emirati women on welfare to become public school bus supervisors.

Under the ministry’s Work is Life programme, they would have been offered a monthly salary of Dh6,000 – far higher than the Dh1,500 for expatriates – to tempt them into taking the jobs.

The programme attracted more than 100 applicants but a deficit of Dh45 million in the ministry’s budget prevented it from going ahead.

Abu Dhabi’s labour force was 1.4million in 2011. Emiratis account for less than 10 per cent of this – 132,000.