Voices From The United Arab Emirates: Engineering Graduates’ Labour Market Requisite Competencies

Abstract

This study reports on engineering graduates’ labour market requisite communication competences and skills in the work environment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its main purpose was to investigate whether internationally required engineering graduates’ communication competences were the same in third world countries or different. It used a survey to collect responses from major engineering companies operating in the seven emirates federation forming the UAE. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with some of the participants to seek clarifications on some of the survey responses. Results indicted similar market demands to those reported in international research with differences in preferences and ranking of competences. The conclusions reported are based on the responses given in the surveys. Future research may follow up some engineering graduates and find out how they perform in labor market environments. The findings show that although engineering labor market demands are in line with global market demands, they; nevertheless, indicate differences in the ranking and importance of the required competences and skills. This has significant implications for engineering course designers.