UAE Ministry of Education and Rolls-Royce launch programme for Emiratis

Designed to promote interest among UAE students in science and engineering and to give them practical engineering skills, the Rolls-Royce Tech Lab pilot programme will be set up at Hamdan bin Rashid School in Warqaa, Dubai. The programme is designed to encourage students into engineering careers and will initially involve the participation of 22 students and four teachers over a period of 13 weeks. The Rolls-Royce Tech-Lab is due to open at the start of the second semester in January 2012 for the students in Grade 11, Science section.

Speaking after the signing of the MoU, His Excellency Humaid Al Qatami, UAE Minister of Education, said: “The leadership of the UAE is committed to giving our students the best employment opportunities possible. The first step on the road to achieving this is by nurturing their interest and providing them with the advanced practical skills they need to enter the job market.
 
“Partnering with a world leader in engineering excellence like Rolls-Royce will provide our students access to the latest technologies and practical career insights, which will hopefully attract them to the kind of technical careers needed to support and sustain our economy in future.”

Dr Rob Watson, Regional Director – Middle East, Rolls-Royce, said: “Rolls-Royce has a long and proud history of delivering engineering excellence and innovation to support the UAE’s aerospace, marine and energy industries.

“We are a company which is rich with world-class skills, technology and expertise and we are deeply committed to supporting the UAEs education goals. We share a common vision and awareness of the need to encourage more UAE Nationals to take on engineering studies in universities. The Rolls-Royce Tech Labs programme is a practical step toward this goal, and we are very grateful to the UAE government for placing their trust in Rolls-Royce and allowing us this unique opportunity to partner with them.”

Supporting education programmes is a core part of the Rolls-Royce business and the company pursues along-term strategy to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills development and industrialisation in the communities in which it operates. The company already has several educational development programmes already on the ground or in the pipeline for the Middle East, such as the Big Science Challenge with the British Council and having been a founding member of the British University in Dubai (BUiD).