Employees in the UAE should start positioning themselves now to take advantage of an expected jobs boom if Dubai is successful in its bid to host Expo 2020.
That's the advice of human resources experts in the wake of a recent economic impact report which concluded that a successful bid will create almost 280,000 jobs by 2021.
Gareth Clayton, associate director at recruitment firm Charterhouse told 7DAYS he would advise workers to: "Develop your understanding of what Expo 2020 stands for and how your skills can complement that theme and the objective."
And fellow HR expert Annalinde Nickisch, from Dubai events agency The Thought Factory, says that career opportunities are there for those looking to benefit from a successful Expo 2020 bid.
"Dubai will face a talent shortage in terms of finding professionals with relevant UAE experience, and retention of existing employees will also be a major challenge," she explains.
The recent economic impact report forecast that 40 per cent of the jobs that could be created by a winning bid will be in the travel and tourism sectors.
Nickisch believes that other sectors likely to see an increase in demand for workers ahead of any Dubai Expo include business development, web and graphic design, marketing and project management.
The report estimated that 90 per cent of the projected employment opportunities would occur from 2018 to 2021.
HR guru Clayton said that filling the number of positions that would be created by a successful bid could be difficult.
"The biggest challenge is probably being able to hit the volume of recruitment required to build, manage and stage the event, whilst meeting the high standards that Dubai demands of it's working population," he explained.
Some workers can expect to reap an Expo dividend without changing jobs - with Nickisch predict pay increases of between 15 and 30 per cent in certain key sectors.
"It will depend on the industry and the local experience of course, but media and hospitality professionals can expect the biggest pay raises,"she said.
Dubai is competing against four other candidate cities bidding to host the Expo 2020. The winner will be officially announced in November.
© 7Days 2013
