Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), KPMG Lower Gulf and The Talent Enterprise have announced that they will be collaborating to produce a study on future workforce trends. A specific focus of this study will be on university students’ career aspirations, employability, and engagement with universities and future employers.

In line with DIAC’s commitment to setting regional benchmarks and providing tools for their academic partners to succeed, the findings will serve as a roadmap that will help strengthen Dubai’s knowledge economy and support the UAE’s national development strategies.

Mohammad Abdullah, Managing Director of DIAC said: “With the unprecedented pace of technological change causing shifts in the workplace, it is very important that we provide the latest future workforce trends to our academic partners so that they can equip the youth with the appropriate set of skills. Through our world-class academic partners, our mandate is to develop the regional talent pool through quality education and supportive environment so we can support the UAE’s goal of developing a competitive knowledge-based economy. This partnership will enable us to gain actionable data, from which we can determine what more we can do for students.”

Marketa Simkova, Associate Partner, People & Change, KPMG Lower Gulf, said: “We are excited to be undertaking this initiative with DIAC and The Talent Enterprise. We are well acquainted with the challenges businesses face when seeking to hire or develop a workforce with the right skills, capable of adapting to the future world of work. Employers are keen to better understand young adults’ preferences and motivations in order to attract, train and develop tomorrow’s workforce. We are proud to be associated with this initiative and look forward to contributing to a project that benefits all stakeholders – industry, academia, and students.”

Consultants from KPMG Lower Gulf’s People & Change practice aim to provide incisive insights from employers on changing priorities and capability needs in the industry. This may help in deriving practical solutions to support students with the development of relevant skill sets.

David Jones, Founder & CEO, The Talent Enterprise said, “Our partnership on the What About YOUth effort will allow us to achieve our common goals of providing insights on employability in the region. We are confident it will help us gain a deeper and more diverse understanding of what drives our youth today, which in turn will help educational institutions and employers maximise the success of future generations to come. This MoU underlines our long-term commitment to the development of youth in the region.”

The Talent Enterprise will provide the tools and platform for data collection and analysis, and collaborate with KPMG to provide insights and findings. DIAC regularly releases leading industry reports dedicated to capturing the latest trends in the education sector. Previous reports covered important subjects such as transnational student mobility.