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Soft skills must for job aspirants, says Dubai expert

Dubai - "These 'soft skills include proper workplace communication and ethics, how to work with others and get through the working day."

Soft skills are indispensable for students to qualify and prepare for the job market and find better and well-paid job opportunities, according to an expert.
Dr Yousef Al Assaf, president of the non-profit Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Dubai, told Khaleej Times that students need to be fully aware of a set of workplace skills that will pave their way to a successful career.
"These 'soft skills include proper workplace communication and ethics, how to work with others and get through the working day, let alone the due cross cultural workplace skills."
Being a career oriented varsity, the RIT offers the longest internship in the world, he added.
"RIT engineering students need to go through training before graduation for 52 weeks during which they pay no academic fees and are even paid monthly Dh2,000 to Dh6,000 by the government and private entities they are trained with."
Up to 100 local and international companies, including Emerson, General Electric, Siemens, Dubai Silicon Oasis and Emirates Aluminum are involved in training RIT students, Students are even subjected to an internal training and preparation on the same soft skills to be well prepared in their internship, Dr Assaf stated.
Aiham Al Akhras, head of business development & operations, Fujitsu ME, said the RIT Career event is actually a win-win situation. "I not only train students on the right workplace skills, but I really get inspiring ideas from them as they mostly think out of the box."
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com