Tell Us More About Your Background?
In high school my focus was on technology and in 1997, the emerging trend was information technology. Alongside technology, I also enjoyed training.
After high school, I started working in a technical support role but found it was not the right career for me. So, I returned to studying to develop my skills for a career in training and thank God I didn’t spend too long in techincal support! I studied International certifications and I am now the Head of Training at Dubai Smart Gov.
What Made You Get Into Training?
Training is an amazing career because I get to meet new people and on every training course I teach I get to share my knowledge and skills with everyone.
I especially emjoy training people from different backgrounds, cultures, religions and nationalities which in turn gives me more experience as a trainer.
Also, as a trainer I’m always updating my skills and If I was working in a normal job maybe the job would be stable, but there would be no development of skills.
What Current Training Trends Do You See?
Currently, I find that the majority of trends are all online in smart services and social media. A lot of the Universities have started offering social media diplomas and are focusing on social media which is becoming very strong in the region.
In addition, Dubai wants to be the No.1 Smart City within 3 years.
Dubai Smart Gov is focusing on excellence right now and wants to be compared to the 5 star services offered in the hospitality industry, like having services available 24 hours a day and making people’s lives easier through technology.
What Interesting Training Projects Have You Implemented at Dubai Smart Gov?
I joined Dubai Smart Gov 12 years ago when the training department was very small. Now I have successfully, with the help of my team established a training centre that serves a majority of the 40 government entities training more than 6,000 employees through our centre.
Take Us Through A Typical Day?
I arrive at the office around 6.45am, at least fifteen minutes before I start my working day. Usually, I try and finish the pending tasks from the day before and once I finish that I start on the day’s tasks, including things that I want to share with my colleagues.
I also do tasks unrelated to training that include marketing and social media. I have always taught my students when I was a lecturer at Abu Dhabi University to never say no to any job as you will always learn something new and gain experience for the real world.
My management team are happy with me doing this and a lot of people don’t like to do extra tasks and just be limited to their job description but I disagree with this because I now have more new skills which will enhance my future.
