LSC 2103 Mini report practice 1

Youths puts skills ahead of money

In a live voting session, 30 per cent of participants said the opportunity for growth and promotion was the most important factor when considering a job offer; 20 per cent said learning new skills was the top factor; while 18 per cent said work environment and culture was the main factor. Only 10 per cent said they would consider salary first. A mere 2 per cent said working hours were the most important criterion. Everyone is always saying that Emiratis only consider working hours and salary. INJAZ UAE is an organization that aims to build bridges between schools and colleges and the private sector. Employers say they can't hire Emiratis because they can't give them the salaries and working hours they demand. Hopefully this will prove them wrong.  Voting results also showed that students believed working in the private sector would present more demands than working for the government. On the other hand, private sector employers mistakenly believe that Emirati youth place more emphasis on salary, benefits and working hours. In order to realize Emiratisation targets, awareness about private sector opportunities needs to be enhanced among the youth.

However, competition for government jobs will intensify as demand outpaces supply, and as the government moves into supporting less traditional industries such as media and hospitality as the economy matures.  Job fairs, career guidance and workshops with corporate guests are ways that universities can help create new perceptions about working in the private sector. To do its bit, the business world can offer internships and trainee programmers to young graduates. The survey, which was conducted in the capital as part of an Emirati youth forum, revealed that 30 per cent of the university students and fresh graduates polled place utmost importance on growth and promotion opportunities when selecting a job. Unfortunately, Emirati youth are unaware of development opportunities in private sector companies. When choosing between public and private sector positions, the deciding factors for Emirati youth tend to be growth and promotion opportunities, work environment and skill development. The private sector work environment does not always provide sufficient motivation for Emirati youth.

Mini Report Practice

Falconers aid houbara survival

 

 At the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX), the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) announced it has exceeded yearly expectations of Asian houbara released into the wild. This year has been significant in terms of success. Some hunters are poaching the houbara by killing it using shotguns, giving the bird a zero survival chance in that case, as opposed to the slight chance of escape the Houbara gets when being hunted by a falcon. A reason for this is the difference in mentality that modern hunters have as opposed to their forefathers who grew up in harsh conditions and  accustmed to giving back to nature as much as they took from it.

Another reason, the Director General revealed, is that many trap these birds and take them from their habitats in order to train their falcons how to hunt. Many falconers have drifted away from traditional methods of hunting, by over-trapping houbara birds, which are not the falcon’s natural prey in the first place. Throughout the Exhibition’s four days, the IFHC will be distributing surveys aimed at falconers to determine how many houbara birds will be needed to be bred, and how severe over-trapping is. Another issue we face is that we cannot determine the size of the black market, which is why these surveys are important.

The survey will indicate how many wild birds are trapped and which areas require the reintroduction programme. IFHC believes that some people are overhunting in some places, that some people are not using the traditional method of hunting and [are] using shotguns, We need to develop a strategy of how to work for these people so it's very important to know what they have in mind.  The survey will give clues to past houbara behaviour. This will hopefully mean houbara will not be taken from the wild to train falcons. Actually, the hunting exhibition is the best place to help us be in contact as much as we can with falconers, and this gives us a very good indication of the hunting pressure and the problems these birds are facing.

Extended Summary 2

How do Gulf corals beat the heat?

 

The algae photosynthesise, producing sugars that provide up to 90 per cent of the coral's energy, and on return, the coral provides shelter, nutrients - mostly nitrogen and phosphorus - and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.

Prof Burt believes that the way to speed up the recovery might be to propagate the corals manually, collecting larvae during spawning events, settling them in artificial nurseries, and then planting those juveniles back out onto reefs. The sooner that happens, he says, the better. Accurate predictions of the fate of coral reefs require a profound knowledge of the adaptation capacity of the main reef builders

An extreme case of bleaching was seen in 1998, when the El Niño weather phenomenon subjected 80 per cent of the world's coral reefs to extreme temperatures. One coral in particular - the table coral, acropora - has managed a particularly impressive recovery along the Abu Dhabi coast, after having been wiped out in 1998.Working with an oceanographer from the marine biodiversity section of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi, they have been developing detailed maps of coastal current patterns in the southern Gulf.