"More job applications, with a 40% increase over last year to 100,000... Our reputation...and our ambitious expansion plans have made membership of the Emirates Group team an attractive goal"

Gary Chapman,
Chief Director (Support and Development)

There were 16,000 employees, an increase of 11 % over the previous year, with Dnata’s staff numbers averaging 6,526 and Emirates 9,163, representing more than 100 nationalities.

Not only does our increasing brand awareness help us to sell tickets and cargo but it also encourages more job applications, with a 40% increase over last year to 100,000. We believe our reputation as a good and fair employer, the attractions of Dubai and our ambitious expansion plans have made the Emirates Group an attractive goal for many professionals in global employment markets.

With the potential of doubling the current employment numbers in this decade, a 10-year workforce recruiting strategy has been created. We have created a purpose built recruitment website www.emiratesgroupcareers.com which will be launched early in the new financial year offering the capability to promote, attract and process applications more efficiently and cost effectively.

When it comes to management training there has been an increasing use of on-line learning with over 6,000 courses completed by staff. e-learning is expected to expand into all areas of traditional training and provide significant cost and delivery savings to the Group.

This has been a landmark year with the opening of a new clinic on the top floor of the Dubai Airline Centre on the Sheikh Zayed Road, giving us much needed space for the increasing number of staff and families in the Group. We have also recruited more staff, including an extra doctor, a dentist, two nurses and additional administrative personnel.
We are cutting over to a new medical records and appointment system, which will enable us to improve productivity and provide more accurate medical data for future planning.

The ongoing accreditation process with the UK Royal College of General Practitioners continues to ensure that we are independently audited and that we maintain ourselves at the very forefront of primary care and aviation medical advances.

We were proud to be awarded accreditation to the Royal College of Surgeons Pre-Hospital Care Facility. This recognition was made for the content and quality of the emergency medical care training programmes given to our cabin crew and ground staff. Up to now, Emirates is the only airline in the world to receive this accreditation.

The major role played by training in the development of the group was underlined by the announcement of the launch of a new facility, the Emirates Aviation College which will incorporate the present Dubai Aviation College, Emirates Training College and our new multi-million-dollar third party simulator business with CAE, - one of the world’s largest manufacturers of state-of-the-art simulators. Construction of these facilities has already started with completion in 2003.

Training has been involved in every aspect of the Group’s activities, from foundation courses involving English communication skills and technical subjects for national cadet pilots prior to their flying school programme, to PC clinics to enhance productivity on company systems. From support to promote new Skywards products to training 100 airport personnel in special services and transfer desk procedures. In addition, a highly successful initiative was launched to run a night school at the college for students interested in careers in airport operations, with many of the 50 graduates on the course later employed by Emirates.

Altogether there were 1,300 training courses attended by 11,800 students.
The Emirates Executive MBA, in conjunction with Bradford University’s School of Management, was expanded with three other companies joining, namely EPPCO, Dubai Civil Aviation and International Turnkey Solutions. By the year end, more than 70 managers across the group had commenced these studies, with the first group graduating in June 2002.