EGA's STEM programme for schools reaches 10,000 student participants since launch

United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that its programme to encourage young people to study and eventually pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has reached 10,000 UAE students since its launch last year.

‘Engineer the Future’ is a schools-based programme that helps students understand how the science, technology, engineering and mathematics principles they learn about in the classroom are applied in the UAE industry. These subjects are collectively known as STEM.

EGA employs over 1,540 STEM experts, including more than 500 UAE Nationals. ‘UAE Vision 2021’ identifies STEM skills as vital to the development of a competitive, knowledge-based economy in the UAE.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said “To achieve our national goals, more young people need to pursue careers in STEM fields. We know from our own research that many young people are interested in these subjects, but in the end choose to do other jobs. ‘Engineer the Future’ is EGA’s contribution to inspiring our young people to become STEM professionals.”

EGA’s ‘Engineer the Future’ programme has visited 38 schools so far in the UAE.

In September, EGA expanded ‘Engineer the Future’ with a new national competition in science, technology, engineering and maths for high school students. The competition is called the ’EGA Aluminium Design Challenge’.

With a cash prize for the winning team, the ‘EGA Aluminium Design Challenge’ invites teams of high school students from grade 9 to 11 to apply the principles of science, technology, engineering and maths to create aluminium-based innovations in Futuristic Transport, Packaging for Humanitarian Relief, Architectural Marvels and Kinetic Art.

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Contacts at EGA:

Simon Buerk
sbuerk@ega.ae  
056 3111 536

Fatima Al Mutawa
falmutawa@ega.ae 
050 327 7545

Khadija Al Marzooqi
kalmarzooqi@ega.ae  
050 8777 850

Sahar Farhat
sfarhat@ega.ae  
050 1213 420

Ameera Al Marzooqi
amarzooqi@ega.ae 
050 957 9672

About EGA

Emirates Global Aluminium is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

It is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry, and the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2017, EGA produced 2.6 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.

EGA has more than 350 customers in over 60 countries. About 80 per cent of EGA’s production is value added products, one of the highest proportions of any aluminium company in the world.

EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Over 10 per cent of EGA’s production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE already employs around 30,000 people, making it the largest employer amongst the UAE’s energy intensive industries.

EGA itself employs around 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, Emirates Global Aluminium aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities.

In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry.

EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

DUBAL’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, EGA’s Jebel Ali site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.

EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.

EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 5,450 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority.

EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants. In addition to meeting its own water requirements, EGA supplies 1.5 per cent of the water needs of Dubai as well as commercial water customers and bottlers.

Today EGA is expanding upstream and internationally to secure the natural resources the UAE’s aluminium industry needs and create new revenue streams.

EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation is building a bauxite mine and associated export infrastructure in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, in one of the largest greenfield investments in that country in over 40 years.

In the UAE, EGA is building the country’s first alumina refinery at Al Taweelah. The project will reduce the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supply 75 per cent of the Al Taweelah smelter’s needs.

For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae. 

© Press Release 2019