Abstract

Positive education and positive psychology have made good strides in developing human excellence, in particular, the development of character strengths conducive to better employment choices, career success, workplace engagement, and overall life satisfaction. Yet, few schools, universities or organizations develop these strengths leaving school-aged youth and young adults bereft of skills in their transition to adulthood. This is especially the case in the GCC countries where governments are on a path to steer nationals away from the public sector toward the private arena where they will compete on an even playing field with international expatriate labour. Many issues exist in meeting this challenge: (1) educational reforms have not yet produced desired results, (2) there is a reluctance to leave the public sector where pay, benefits, and job security are higher, (3) graduate students are unprepared for the workforce, lacking the strengths, or soft skills needed to excel. To address this gap, a character strengths development program (Strengths CompassTM) grounded in positive psychology and positive education, was developed and piloted to national and expatriate youth (aged 15 to 16) in Ras Al Khaimah (United Arab Emirates) to see whether the development of such a program is feasible and what lessons could be learned in delivery. Recommendations from this pilot are offered and suggest that character strengths can and should be taught to address the growing need for the mobilization and maximization of human capital in the GCC region.

Introduction

Across the Arab world, governments are recognizing the pressing employment needs of youth as they attempt to harness the human capital of this demographic group. How they respond to this challenge will determine their nation’s political stability and successful economic growth over time. The development of youth capital is crucial given the demographic and social transitions now underway in the Middle East/North African (MENA) region, where the demand for jobs currently outstrips available opportunities. With government efforts, education also plays a role in these developments; however, current educational outputs do not provide for job skills such as critical thinking, initiative and persistence, the lack of which hamper the ability of youth to succeed in jobs undermining their development, as well as that of their nations.

To address these and other developmental challenges, positive education, a subset of positive psychology combines best teaching practises with the identification and nurturance of character strengths and shows a promising foundation from which to tackle regional issues of employment and youth psychosocial development. From the perspective of positive education, schools are model settings in which to facilitate the development of social, emotional, and intellectual skill sets that promote individual and collective growth. The transition from a traditional educational paradigm focused on youth deficits to one centered on strengths and capacities emerged from the recognition that merely working on the negative and helping youth avoid or deal with problems did not result in the development of skills conducive to life and workplace success. As education is not only about teaching students to read and write, the inclusion of strengths facilitates the development and actualization of their full potential from which to attain a state of wellbeing and contribute to the development of a sustainable and stable society.