Study: 85 percent of Emirati youth prefer learning through direct dialogue

The Federal Youth Authority announced the results of an exploratory study to know the opinion of young people in the fourth Ramadan lecture of the Mohammed bin Zayed Council, which was held remotely under the title "Lifelong Learning and Research: The Key to Our Future Potential and Energies", in which His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, participated in it.

The study showed that about 85 percent of Emirati youth prefer learning through direct dialogue rather than using social media channels.

The study aimed to know the opinion of Emirati youth on the concept of lifelong learning, as two out of five youth (39%) preferred to know new information through their conversation with others, whether they were members of their families who are older than them, senior citizens, mentors and other young people, which reflects The values ​​of solidarity in the Emirati society.

The study also revealed that learning through dialogue is the method that young people prefer over any other means such as social media or reading.  

At the same time, about three-quarters of the participants in the survey expected that the quality of their work would improve through lifelong learning, and that continuing education would have a positive impact on their creativity and innovation.  

The exploratory study sample included 200 young Emiratis affiliated with the initiatives and programs of the Federal Youth Foundation, with a margin of error not exceeding 7% of the total. The age group between 15 and 35 years constituted the majority of the study sample with a percentage of 83.25 percent of its participants, while the group formed The age range between 35 and 50 years made up 15.71 percent of the sample that included only two participants who were over 50 years old.  

Her Excellency Shamma bint Suhail bin Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, stressed the importance of the outcomes of this session’s dialogue, which expressed a comprehensive vision that brought together the various spectrums of Emirati society, and is a translation of the aspirations of our leadership, which established the principle of investing in people as an absolute priority, and whose foundation was laid by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan "May God rest his soul" and it became a national approach and thought adopted by the institutions of the public and private sectors in the UAE.

Her Excellency added that the elements of investment in people are linked to a permanent and profitable bet in the energies of young people through a modern and flexible Emirati model that depends on involvement, empowerment and capacity building and depends on practical research and lifelong learning to acquire skills.. We believe that education today has taken a different form and will take renewed templates during The next few years, and we must continue to work to design an incubating environment capable of providing continuous learning capabilities in terms of ease of access and quality of content in order to serve the UAE Vision 2071 and in order for this generation to deliver the banner of construction to future generations. We will also make sure in the Federal Youth Foundation to continue listening to young people using various Available tools, whether through live meetings, dialogue and interactive platforms, as well as periodic surveys and studies.

About half of the study participants (44 percent) believe that lifelong learning will guarantee them a happy life, expressing their willingness to participate in similar activities that contribute to continuous development and progress.

While more than a third of respondents (35.5 percent) indicated that they are learning skills related to their jobs, more than two thirds (68.5 percent) expect lifelong learning to support their creativity.

Two-thirds of the participants in the study believe that enhancing self-confidence is the most important benefit of lifelong learning, while (63.5 percent) of them believe that it contributes to creating renewed self-motivation and more career opportunities.

 Young people believe that working on acquiring new professional skills is better than new personal skills, as (36 percent) of the respondents showed more interest in developing professional skills, while 32 percent were interested in personal skills.

More than half of the study participants (53 percent) considered group learning as their preferred method, while (25 percent) of them preferred to learn by reading, while (21 percent) of them chose social media as a learning platform, and about 22 percent) of them are self-learning and alone, while (25 percent) of them express a desire to learn from others.

The participants in the study almost unanimously agreed that it is still possible to do more to encourage and spread the culture of lifelong learning in society, as more than half of them believed that the repercussions of the spread of (Covid-19) had a significant impact in pushing them to continue the lifelong learning journey, and stressed (95 percent) of them say the pandemic has made lifelong learning more important.

 The lecture "Lifelong Learning and Research: The Key to Our Future Potential and Energies" focused on 3 other main themes centered around human brotherhood and tolerance as a message for religions, promoting health and safety globally, and strengthening societies' strength, resilience and resilience to face various challenges. Topics were chosen to stimulate dialogue on important social aspects during the holy month of Ramadan .

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