EGA marks Emirati Women’s Day with record women graduate trainees
Image: EGA
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, marked Emirati Women’s Day on 28 August with, for the first time, a majority of women among the company’s graduate trainees.
Emirati Women’s Day was introduced in 2015 by Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, president of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and supreme chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF). The day celebrates and honours the contributions and achievements of Emirati women to the nation’s development and progress.
Sheikha Fatima, who is known as the ‘Mother of the Nation,’ is the wife of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder and first president of the UAE.
EGA currently has 75 graduate trainees, 49 of them women, and all UAE Nationals. Graduate trainees complete 18 or 24 months of training for supervisory positions in corporate functions or in industrial operations. For graduate trainees in operations, this includes periods working shifts in front-line operational roles they will supervise, such as tending reduction cells.
EGA employs over 471 women in the UAE in total, including more than 160 in operations. The company is aiming for women to hold 25 per cent of supervisory positions by 2025, and 15 per cent of all positions by 2026.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, chief executive officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Emirati Women’s Day is an opportunity to recognise the role of UAE National women at EGA, and to assess our progress in championing gender diversity. Diversity drives business performance, and also enables the best talents from right across society to contribute to the progress of our nation. That is why we have set ourselves ambitious goals to further increase the role of women at EGA.”
The UAE is one of few countries in the world where more women than men graduate from university in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. EGA is a major employer of STEM professionals, with around 1,500 people working at the company in these roles.
On Emirati Women’s Day, EGA’s senior leaders attended an event organised by EGA’s Women’s Network to discuss how to make further progress on gender diversity.
Last year, EGA recruited 100 UAE National women in total, out of a total UAE National intake of just over 220. The average age of EGA’s UAE National recruits was 23 years old.
EGA has appointed women to nine positions on subsidiary boards in recent years, and is a partner of Aurora50, a UAE organisation which helps prepare women for board-level roles.
In 2022, EGA opened National Training programmes for front-line roles in industrial operations to women for the first time, with 11 young UAE National women joining during the year. To date this year, nine female national trainees have joined.
The theme for this year’s Emirati Women’s Day was ‘We Collaborate for Tomorrow,’ aligning with UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s declaration of 2023 as the ‘Year of Sustainability.’
It’s great to see EGA championing women’s role in driving the industry, rather than just solely filling a diversity box. Indeed, according to a 2022 report by the World Economic Forum, the UAE topped global gender equality rankings.
- Alex Rivers (she/her), CanTech International editor
Keep in touch via email: [email protected] Twitter: @CanTechIntl or LinkedIn: CanTech International magazine.
