This brings to 11,132 the total number of companies that joined the programme.

Emaduddin Khalil, Staff Reporter

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has identified 6 advantages for private sector establishments in the country when adhering to the Emiratisation targets set for private sector companies.

These benefits include providing the facility with qualified Emirati cadres to fill the skilled positions in the company, benefiting from the support packages of the competitiveness programme for Emirati cadres Nafis, and obtaining the support of the Ministry of Human Resources provided to distinguished facilities in training and employing citizens.

The advantages also include the joining of establishments committed to the Emiratisation goals to the Emiratisation Partners Club, raising the classification of the establishment in the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation to the first category, and obtaining discounts of up to 80% on fees for the Ministry's services.

The Ministry called on private sector establishments to take the initiative to achieve the semi-annual Emiratisation targets, which amount to 1% of skilled jobs, until December 31, 2023.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation recently announced the expansion of the base of private establishments targeted for Emiratisation to include individual companies and establishments with 20 to 49 workers working in specific economic activities.

The decision aims to increase the number of citizens with the targeted establishments operating within 14 major economic activities, by appointing at least one citizen in 2024, and another citizen in 2025, while an annual financial fine will be imposed against establishments that are not committed to achieving the required goal with Dhs96,000.

A fine of Dhs108,000 will be imposed in January 2026 for the year 2025 if they fail to meet the deadline.

The establishments will be allowed to pay the value of the fine in instalments in agreement with the Ministry.

On the other hand, as many as 4,115 new private sector companies and establishments joined the Emirati Talent Competitiveness programme (Nafis) between the beginning of this year until August 13.

This brings to 11,132 the total number of companies that joined the programme, recording an increase of about 58.6 per cent over the number of companies recorded until the end of December last year, which was estimated at 7,017 companies.

Companies, establishments and employers registered in Nafis offer thousands of vacancies in various fields and provide training opportunities for national cadres in various work sectors in the country. These companies also benefit from employees’ salary support and discounts on pensions.

The vacancies offered by the companies include education, accommodation and food service activities, finance and insurance, construction, wastewater and waste management, mining and quarrying, agriculture, forestry and fishing, human health and social work activities, information and communications, power supply, gas and steam, air conditioning.

They also include arts, entertainment and recreation, public administration and defence, real estate market activities, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, transportation and warehousing, administrative and support services, professional, scientific and technical activities and other sectors.

The programme called on job-seeking Emiratis to speed up updating their data on the platform, to take advantage of its benefits including the job opportunities available and the facilitated automatic matching between the job-seeker’s qualifications and experience and the jobs offered.

The program affirmed that it was working to increase the percentage of Emiratisation in the private sector by requesting the establishments with 50 employees or more to achieve an Emiratisation growth of one cent in skilled jobs every 6 months.