The Gulf states seem to have come of age. Whereas expats commonly filled many of the professional Middle Eastern roles until recently, now the demand is for qualified local talent. DeeDee Doke went out to the Gulf and found out about the situation first-hand.

When talk turns to the surfeit of jobs available in the Middle East, the assumption is that the roles in question will be filled by Western expatriates, the mainstay of professional expertise in the region.

However, recruiters operating in the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar today are working to a new vision — a greater emphasis by the states themselves on localisation of the workforce.

Because natives of the Gulf states have traditionally benefited from the region’s incredible oil wealth, full-time paid employment has not been a necessity for most. However, today’s Gulf leaders are now encouraging their citizens to work, and backing up the new direction with both education for their constituents and localisation employment targets for employers to meet.

The practice makes sense, in the view of Edward Oakden, British ambassador to the UAE. He told Recruiter: “What they are trying to do [in the UAE] … is ensure they have sufficient Emiratis who are trained to take leadership positions in their economies in the future. And so there are, for example, requirements in the financial sector that a certain proportion of the workforce should be Emiratis.

“We think that’s both admirable and something that we very strongly support — it’s win-win,” Oakden continued. “By definition a qualified national will be better able to take forward a British business interest in his own country than would another expatriate. So what one gets is a pretty strong partnership.”

The drive to localise is more evident in some sectors than in others. Oil giant Shell has spoken publicly of its efforts to train and develop Qataris working in its Qatar operations, which would seem a natural fit. British recruiter Christine Bond, director of Abu Dhabi-based Bond HR Consultants, told Recruiter that public sector jobs are “very popular” with Emiratis, with private sector work less so.

The growth of local government and the development of new government departments and agencies are fuelling an increase in public sector jobs, added Marie-Hélène Goire, Bond’s marketing director. “They’re hiring and hiring, and they want more Emiratis.”

In fact, one of the strategic priorities of plans to develop Al Gharbia, Abu Dhabi’s so-called Western Region which covers 71% of the UAE’s total land mass, is to invest in the training and development of UAE nationals.

Although Abu Dhabi officials have not revealed the kinds or numbers of jobs they hope to create in the region’s six major towns, they have disclosed to local recruiters that they will be seeking candidates who speak both Arabic and English.

Currently, Emiratis would be expected to make up 2% of the workforce of businesses with more than 100 employees, Bond said.

Bond has worked in Abu Dhabi as a recruiter since the late 1970s. One of the key challenges for her as a recruiter today is that she is increasingly being asked to source not only Emiratis, but candidates who are fluent in both Arabic and English. To find and optimise such talent pools, Bond emphasised, “local knowledge is essential. Our niche is knowing the market, and knowing where they [bilingual candidates] are”.

The UAE is bolstering the knowledge and credentials of its citizens through schools called the Higher Colleges of Technology, which were first established just 20 years ago. They offer credentials at four different levels, and more than half of the 16,000 students at the 16 campuses are women.

In Qatar, where as a British recruiter put it, “Qatarisation is a big deal”, Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser al Missned, the wife of the ruling emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, is a driving force in revamping and developing the country’s educational resources, as well as advocating increased work opportunities for women in particular.

However, the transition of locals into the workforce is still building steam in Qatar and remains at an early stage of awkwardness, some recruiters familiar with the area acknowledge. Matching Qataris with unfilled jobs can be “a nightmare”, admitted a recruiter familiar with the country, who requested to remain anonymous.

While localisation is still a priority, expatriates from other Middle Eastern countries are also imported in to fill specific senior needs for some clients.

Joanne Thomas, managing director for executive search firm Talent Partners in Qatar, estimated that about 50% of her firm’s placements involve candidates from elsewhere in the Middle East. “Some clients are looking for regional expertise and some are looking for Arabic language skills,” said Thomas, an Australian with 12 years’ experience in the Middle East.

The past dominance of Western expats in the Gulf workplace will diminish in many disciplines in the future. But the expertise of expat recruiters, who can effectively navigate across cultures, skills sets and sectors, promises to remain an unmet local need for the region for some time to come.