UAE to Establish Training Centers for Laborers in India, Pak, Bangladesh

The United Arab Emirates will set up training centers for laborers India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in an effort to control the flow of unskilled workers into the country's construction sector and bypass private recruitment agencies.

India will be the first country where these training centers will be established for laborers. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh will also have these centers after India centers.

"The UAE will start by opening an office in India in early 2013 to train and rehabilitate workforce," said Saeed Abdullah, the National Productivity Improvement Program manager at the Federal Demographic Council (FDC).

The ratio of unskilled labor in the construction sector amounts up to 85 percent, he said, adding that the "first batch of [trained] workers will be 5,000 in the first year, 20,000 in 2014 and 50,000 in 2015".

He said that the workers will have to bear the cost of the training estimated to be up to Dh6,000, but will no longer have to pay thousands of dirhams to recruitment agencies or private travel agents to get jobs.