According to a survey conducted in the Middle East, 65 percent of the workforce is insecure about their jobs. This figure is much higher for workers in UAE.
Most people get pessimistic but some take this as an opportunity to reinvent themselves by acquiring new skills to keep their jobs. The number of enrollments in the executive programs being offered are constantly on the rise in Gulf educational institutions.
Not only the laid-off workers, but the working class has also felt the need to retrain themselves to become more competitive in the job market. There are a lot of one to five day courses being conducted for this purpose.
Professionals in many companies are being asked to transfer themselves in other departments as a result of downsizing. Marketing department, for instance, has become more of a luxury than a necessity. This requires that workers get trained for new skills in areas such as Human Resources or Administration to get jobs that are high in demand.
I wholeheartedly agree with this viewpoint. Although my future prospects lie in the UAE – currently I work in Pakistan. My extensive experience has been in Marketing Communication, however, with the current economic downturn, I shifted my career path to the HR Outsourcing Industry. Although, I might face some resistant in my future job hunts, this is an experience which has opened multiple opportunities for me.