The need for more quality resources in Arabic, financial constraints, and mobility are among the main challenges facing the young workforce when attempting to advance their skills. These were revealed during a two-day annual retreat held by Sharjah for Capability Development (SCD), a subsidiary of the Rubu’ Qarn Foundation for Creating Leaders and Innovators, and NAMA Women Advancement Establishment (NAMA).

Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of Rubu’ Qarn Foundation for Creating Leaders and Innovators, this year’s retreat ran under the theme "Content curation as a driver of learning," to discuss and formulate strategies to identify the challenges in individual learning journeys, and how content curation can be leveraged as a powerful resource to encourage ‘lifelong learning’ for the workforce.

The retreat comes in line with the objectives of SCD to equip UAE workforce with an advanced skillset nurtured through an ecosystem that enables their personal and professional growth and puts them on path to become leaders in their fields capable and willing to compete, innovate and be the foundation on which the country’s national economic goals and visions are achieved.

The retreat highlighted NAMA’s online learning platform Badiri E-Academy, launched in September 2018 in Arabic and English, and its pivotal role in eradicating geographical, financial, social and linguistic barriers. It also equips the people around the work with relevant skills to compete in the workforce and promotes the concept of lifelong learning.

Reem BinKaram, Director of NAMA, and member of Rubu Qarn board of trustees, said, "We live in a fast-paced world. To stay ahead of the challenges and adapt quickly, we need to seed the concept of ‘lifelong learning’ in our young national cadre as the only mean to stay relevant and compete in today’s workplace for both genders. To achieve that, we need an ecosystem compromised of all stakeholders to put into place an infrastructure and support systems, whether at home or the workplace, to nurture lifelong advancement of our human resources."

"Content curation is paramount today. We need to select knowledge and content from reputable sources and provide it to our youth in an accessible, cost effective manner to build our human resources, help them advance on a personal and professional level to achieve their aspirations and goals. Badiri E-Academy is one example of a platform to build their capacities. It was designed with content and relevance at its core to provide an enriching learning experience to women, and men as well, because of the belief that information and knowledge should be accessible to everyone," she continued.