Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has stated that the UAE seeks to groom future generations capable of re-shaping the future according to a forward-thinking vision and scientific approach that utilise advanced tools, in order to realise the UAE’s comprehensive goals to be among the world’s most advanced countries.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed made the statements during a graduation ceremony of 50 employees, representing 37 government authorities, from an integrated academic training programme launched in November 2016 in collaboration with Oxford Business College, to address the nation’s future, anticipate its challenges and seize opportunities.

The UAE has realised the world’s future directions and challenges at an early stage and therefore, it has started training future generations of Emirati nationals who can foresee the future, to prepare them to tackle rapid international developments, he added.

"It is highly important to build up the capacities of government teams on the basis of being able to foresee the future, in order to plan the required solutions and create the tools to face future challenges, as well as to establish a unique foundation of knowledge that we can share with international governments, so we could contribute to planning the future with Emirati fingerprints," he further added.

"You are the first generation who can predict the future of our government, and your responsibility includes utilising your knowledge and experience in your workplaces, as well as motivating your colleagues to promote the country’s model of the future. We aim for our government authorities to adopt future practices and approaches, which can outpace the needs of the present and comply with the country’s future requirements," His Highness said to the graduates.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed stressed that the future will present many challenges and require various solutions, adding that an accurate, scientific and forward-thinking vision is the tool that will enable the country to appropriately utilise its resources and energies, to shape the future for the people of the UAE. He also urged the graduates to plan comprehensive government models to foresee the future, in order to make the UAE government a universal model to be followed.

The graduation ceremony was attended by H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior; H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and several other sheikhs and ministers.

The programme, organised aims to teach its participants to understand the process of foreseeing the future and its tools and methodologies, as well as to train them on their practical application, by focusing on the sectors they represent.

The programme also seeks to teach them to understand role-playing scenarios, principles and methodologies, based on the work of the UAE government. It also aims to develop their knowledge of the government’s organisational process and their skills to forecast the future and to plan various scenarios on decision-making, as part of the work of UAE government departments and sectors.