How UAE Universities are Transforming Vacation into Career Launchpads

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
This is the Morning Drive. For many UE students, summer is unfortunately no longer a holiday. It's becoming a chance to maybe have an internship, you can learn new skills, you can boost your chances, perhaps of landing a job after graduation. And as employers place a greater value on real world experience, are students making better use of the summer break? There's a question. Dr. Anita Patankar is Executive Director at Symbiosis International University, Dubai. Joins me in the studio. It's good to meet you.

**Dr Anita Patankar** (0:34)
Lovely to be here. Excited about this conversation.

**Tim Elliott** (0:38)
It's good to have you here. So look, the summer break used to be synonymous with downtime when I was a kid. Many years ago, I have to be honest, my summers were anything other than work.
But the thing is, yeah, I think there's been a big change. We are in the UE., it's a high-growth economy. It's perhaps the summer, maybe the most productive quarter of the year for some students now, isn't it?

**Dr Anita Patankar** (1:05)
Well...

**Tim Elliott** (1:06)
In work terms, I mean, potential.

**Dr Anita Patankar** (1:09)
Let me just say, I don't think that applies to 100% of the students.

**Tim Elliott** (1:14)
Okay.

**Dr Anita Patankar** (1:14)
I think you still have a reasonably good cohort of students who are not doing anything but lazing around, playing sports, watching movies, hanging out with your friends.
I think what we are talking about, and universities tend to cater primarily to this group of students, are the ones who are ambitious about their own personal and professional lives. So, let's focus on that, but let's also be aware of the fact that everybody is not wanting to learn a new language or get some certification or get an internship. They're just saying, let me play, let me learn a sport, let me do stuff that will help me, but not necessarily in my career growth. So, I would say there's a good 20 to 30, if not more, percentage of people who are doing that. I think the UAE has a larger number of students who are focused on their careers because, and you may not agree with me, but I think their parents are more focused. If you look at the middle class, upper middle class, upper demobile parent, they focus a lot.

**Tim Elliott** (2:28)
Yeah, I would agree with you in lots of ways. I think there is, I think people look at the region maybe differently now, but I think if you've made the jump and come here, then maybe your attitude is a little bit more of a go-getting attitude.

**Dr Anita Patankar** (2:45)
Probably, I would say 70% of the parents are like that.

**Tim Elliott** (2:49)
Yeah, okay.

**Dr Anita Patankar** (2:49)
You still have some who want to spend their summers the way they did, you know, play, and they've sent the kids to a good school, so it's good enough. By the, I would say, by the second last or the last year, I think everyone is career focused.

**Tim Elliott** (3:08)
Right.

**Dr Anita Patankar** (3:08)
The first couple of years may not be.
On a personal note, I do have to say, I don't know whether it's a good thing that young adults are so focused on what industry wants and what their career requires. Because who knows what the future holds? We have absolutely no idea, you know, which industries are going to survive, technology is changing our lives so rapidly. Who knows, you know, five years from now, what is going to happen and what are we training them for? But in that sense, I also understand that internships are a great way of just understanding how organizations work.

**Tim Elliott** (3:53)
I mean, it's a very personal thing, isn't it? And, you know, ambition is a very hard thing to put your finger on. I had a friend at school who, when we were 13, 14, said to me, I'm going to be a vet. That's what I want to be. I want to be a vetry surgeon. That's how I'm going to go.
I remember looking at him thinking, but you're so bad at science, there's no way you're going to be a vet. You're stupider than I am. You're 13, 14 He's now a vet, has been a vet for a long time.

**Dr Anita Patankar** (4:18)
And he's probably very successful.

**Tim Elliott** (4:19)
I would think probably very good, because it's more of a calling. So some people are like that. I was never like that. I have long said, I don't know what I want to do when I grow up. And I still say that now. But it's not a one size fits all.