Emiratisation in Etisalat touches 40pc: CEO

Talking to the Press on the sidelines of the graduation ceremony held for 200 UAE national technicians at the Etisalat Academy in Al Qusais yesterday, Mr Al Owais said that the rates offered by government-run telecommunications company were comparable to the best in the world.

"We have benchmarked our national and international call rates and they are very competitive," he said, indicating that the implementation of newer technologies would result in further reduction of Etisalat call rates in the future.

Earlier, Mr Al Owais joined Mohammed Sultan Al Qadi, General Manager of Etisalat, Ras Al Khaimah and Chairman of Etisalat's Technical Training Committee, and Dr Doaa Fares, General Manager of the Etisalat Academy, to confer certificates on some of the students who completed the preliminary training courses for the first and second classes of the technical diploma and the second class of the IT diploma.

Graduates who excelled in different scientific and sports competitions during the 15-month long training programme were also honoured.

Among others present on the occasion were Abdul Aziz Al Sawaleh, Etisalat Executive Vice-President of Human Resources, and Younes Al Nimr, National Training Programmes Manager.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Al Owais appealed to all the graduates to work hard and keep pace with the technological advancements and customer care trends in order to enable them perform in a professional manner as directed by the President, His Highness Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, His Highness Shaikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and the Members of the Supreme Council. While highlighting the importance that Etisalat attaches to the training of UAE nationals at various levels, Mr Al Owais also commended the scientific and training reputation of the Etisalat Academy whose world-class programmes had earned the best of skills and cutting-edge expertise for its graduates.

He also expressed his gratitude to the nationalisation committee for its continuous efforts to enhance the quality of technical training programmes as well as the Etisalat human resources department for its support to UAE professionals.

Mr Al Qadi, in his speech, stressed that the committee had been working collectively to make the training programmes successful.

He referred to the newly-launched programmes that followed the international accreditation of the Etisalat Academy, making it the first such academy in the Middle East to deliver the technical diploma.

The training programmes focused on the technical and scientific skills through an intensive course that lasted 15 months.

Modules covered technical sciences, computing, Mathematics, English, management and customer service skills. Trainees were also taught a number of courses in GSM and Fibre technology.