Women brought to limelight: EGA has over 50% female recruitment in 2024

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) outside oil and gas, announced that the global enterprise has hired 113 UAE  National women in 2024, more than half the 220 Emiratis taken on by EGA during the year. 

EGA plans for women professionals to hold approximately 25 per cent of higher designations by the end of 2025 and 15 per cent of all roles by the end of the following year. Currently, women hold 23.3 per cent of supervisory roles and 9.6 per cent of all the roles at the company. At the end of 2024, the EGA’s determinant Emiratisation rate was 44.3 per cent. On a like-for-like basis, the enterprise is among the highest Emiratisation rate holders. EGA intends to accelerate in-focus Emiratisation to conclude at 50 per cent by the end of 2027, which denotes that the company’s hiring will close to 600 UAE nationals over the stipulated period. 

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, conveyed on this note, “More than 71 per cent of our 2024 UAE National recruits joined roles in EGA’s operations, driving forward our vision for excellence and our contribution to achieving the goals of UAE’s industrial strategy Operation 300bn. Our unwavering commitment to Emiratisation enables us to capitalise on exceptional UAE  National talent to maximise our growth and the economic development of our nation. Our ambitious  Emiratisation goals reflect our role as a leader in national talent development and innovation. We have exceeded our in-focus Emiratisation goals for 2024 and are now aiming to reach 50 per cent in-focus  Emiratisation rate by 2027.” 

In 2024, approximately 144 recruits, including 65 women, joined EGA’s National Training programs, which prepare high school graduates for technical and administrative positions within the company’s industrial facilities and administration. The majority of university graduates who participated in EGA’s long-standing Graduate Training program in 2024 were women. Graduate trainees undergo 18 to 24 months of training for supervisory roles in corporate functions or industrial operations. For those in operations, this training includes working shifts in front-line roles they will later supervise, such as managing reduction cells.

EGA took part in 14 national career events in 2024, including prominent fairs and its own recruitment drives conducted in collaboration with the Dubai Government Human Resources Department, the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, the Department of Government Enablement, and the HR departments of both the RAK and Fujairah Governments.

More than 1,300 UAE nationals are employed at EGA, with over half of them under the age of 35. Since its founding in 1975 by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum as Dubai Aluminium, Emirates Global Aluminium has been at the forefront of aluminium innovation, making modern life possible. Today, EGA is the world’s largest producer of ‘premium aluminium’ and the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside of the oil and gas sector.

EGA is jointly owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai, making it the largest company co-owned by these two Emirates.