This section presents the background characteristics of young people participated in the survey which includes age, gender, education level, employment states and place of work. The main purpose of this section is to give an outline of what the study sample reveals.
9.3.1 The sample by age
The results in table 6 indicate that about half of those who completed the questionnaires (49 per cent) were aged between 22-25 years, followed by the age group 26-30 which accounted for about one third of participants (32.7 per cent). About one fifth of the participants are aged between 18 and 21 years. Furthermore, the majority of participants belong to the youngest age-group.
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Table 6: Distribution of young people participating in the study by age
9.3.2 The sample by gender
It is clear from table 7 that the vast majority of participants are male: 71.6 per cent compared to only about a third females (28.4 per cent). These results are in part explained by the fact that the majority of visitors to Tanmia are males. From a cultural point of view, women are less likely to seek jobs than their male counterparts because of expected family responsibilities (Buchmann & DiPrete, 2006). According to Riel (2011), from UAE cultural context point of view, men are expected to be the main breadwinners, get an education, and a career while many women are expected to marry and raise children. On the other hand, a study conducted by the International Council on Security and Development showed that Emirati young women are more likely (than young men) to find jobs in the local labour market (ICOS, 2010). This trend could be attributed to the high number of female graduates with college and university degrees. For example, 74 per cent of those admitted at universities in the UAE in 2010 were females and 79 per cent of graduates were also females (Zakharia, 2010). According to the UAE University (2013), 13,540 students registered in 2012/2013 of which 10,254 were females (76 per cent). These statistics reflect the huge number of females who graduate from higher education institutions. The ability of women to gain employment could also be indicative of a level of cultural change in UAE society. While women might be reluctant to go to Tanmia and mix with other male job seekers to seek employment opportunities they, nevertheless, might be willing to apply directly to organisations to seek employment.
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Table 7: Distribution of participants in the study by sex
9.3.3 Young people by educational level
Table 8 shows that more than three quarters of participants in this study were secondary and bachelor degree holders (39.9 per cent and 39.7 per cent respectively). Only 11.1 per cent who finished their intermediate diploma while 3.8 per cent were engaged in vocational training, while 5.5 per cent from Masters and PhD holders. These results reveal that more than half of the participants are not degree holders. This may explain the problems they face in trying to compete with the expatriates (foreign workers) in the local labour market.
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9.3.4 Relationship between employment status and qualification (Educational level)
The main purpose of examining the relationship between employment status and qualification was to have insight about the difference between educated young people to higher levels and low levels. This also gives an indication about how higher education levels affect employment status. It is clear from table 9 that about two third of participants are employed (64.6 per cent) compared to 35.4 per cent who are unemployed.
Table 9: Distribution of young people participating in the study by employment status
Table 10 makes clear that the majority of the unemployed is people with only secondary level education (42.1 per cent), followed by young people who hold bachelor degree (31.6 per cent). Although the results of this data cannot be generalised to larger population, they reveal (Table 10) that there are high unemployment rates among the holders of bachelor degrees.
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Table 10: Relationship between employment status and educational level
9.3.5 Young people by place of work
Table 11 below shows that the overwhelming majority (86.4 per cent) of participants in this survey worked for the public sector, compared to only 8.1 per cent who worked for the private sector. These figures suggest that Emirati young people find public sector work more appealing, which as we noted before is (as Godwin, 2006, argues) is probably because of higher wages, good working conditions, permanent jobs, considerations of status etc. The tiny proportion of self-employed persons (5.5 per cent) may indicate lack of entrepreneurship among young Emiratis, or may simply be because self-employed people would be unlikely to feature in the sample I have chosen.
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Table 11: Distribution of young people participating in the study by place of work
9.3.6 Suitability of young people’s current jobs to their qualifications
More than two third of employed participants in the study (71.5 per cent) reported that their current job was suitable for and matched their qualifications (educational level). It seems, by inference, that about one third of them (28.5 per cent) were not satisfied with their jobs, and regarded them as not suitable for their educational levels.
Table 12: Distribution of participants in the study by perceived suitability of current job to their qualifications
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9.3.7 Participation in training programmes
The results in table 13 indicate that 61.1 per cent of the respondents had never done any training courses related to their area of specialisation or any other courses.
Table 13: Distribution of questionnaire respondents by past participation in training programmes