The Expat teaching community is becoming increasingly competitive, says Samantha Ellaby

Clyde & Co. Senior Associate and Employment Law Specialist Samantha Ellaby takes on how Emiratisation affects the education employment and why schools in the UAE need to consider the best ways to attract and retain key talent.

1.Can you describe your journey to being an employment lawyer/consultant?

The journey to being an employment lawyer is rather long! After studying law at college and university, I trained with a multinational law firm in the UK. As part of my training contract, I had the opportunity to work in a number of different departments but, for me, employment was the most interesting by far. I enjoy the human aspect and I can definitely say that no two days have ever been the same!

I qualified as a specialist employment lawyer in 2011 and practised in the UK for a number of years, before moving to Clyde & Co in Dubai. I am now a senior associate in Clyde & Co’s MENA Employment Practice and am fortunate to work alongside a team of specialist employment lawyers from paralegals through to partners.

Whilst I act for clients in a range of sectors, I have always had a particular focus on education both in the UK and now in the UAE. There are lots of nuances to employment law and practice in this sector which, for me, make it an interesting area to advise on.

2. Which are the major recruitment trends in the education industry at present? How can schools fill the rising demand for quality educators in the Middle East?

The UAE continues to see a large number of schools opening each year and, with that, comes increased competition for talent and more focus on incentivising key talent to remain as well as having robust post-termination restrictions in place.

The expat teaching community is becoming increasingly more competitive; UAE schools must also now compete with other international locations such as Singapore and China to attract and retain quality teaching staff. Educators need to consider how best to attract and retain key talent. Increasing remuneration packages to compete with the Asian market is not necessarily viable and, as a result, we are increasingly seeing more innovative ways of doing this (for example, through share schemes and ongoing professional development).

Emiratisation is a key focus across the UAE and one which we will cover during our session. The past couple of years have seen a large number of legislative and regulatory developments in this regard, which affect all sectors including education.

We, together with our corporate team, have recently supported a number of educators through mergers and acquisitions which, of course, comes with associated employee issues such as transfers, terminations and harmonisation of terms.

3. As a speaker at IPSEF 2018, what are the main takeaways from your session?

Our session is titled “Top 5 Things Investors Need to Know about Employment in the UAE”. We could quite happily talk about employment issues in the education sector for the whole day but, in the time allotted, we thought we would focus on 5 topics which are often a surprise to new entrants to the market and/or which are quite different to many other jurisdictions (such as the strict immigration rules, the interaction between the general labour laws and the education specific regulations and the focus on Emiratisation). As well as getting a legal insight into these topics, attendees will learn how each topic impacts on education sector employers in practice.