Dubai Customs conducts 90 training sessions for employees and clients in 2004

Dubai Customs considers training as an integrated system for employees to better serve their clients and it helps clients to enhance their offerings to internal and external stake holders, to efficiently market their products and services.

The month of May witnessed the most number of training sessions, where 14 sessions were conducted in all. The duration of the training sessions varied from three days to three months.

The training sessions were aimed at developing the career skills of employees, which will help in their communication with the commercial, industrial and financial clients of Dubai Customs. The training included sessions on motivation, improving work efficiency, orientation for new employees, training in office jobs like typing and graphic design and a session on improving English language skills. A seminar was also held to hone various skills of employees.

Suad Mohammed Hassan, Head of Planning and Training Programmes Section, Dubai Customs said, "Dubai Customs aims to make employees well-versed on all matters related to regional and international customs procedures. We are giving utmost importance to training our staff from all departments of Dubai Customs. The training sessions have made a huge positive impact on the performance of our staff, especially with regard to customer service and our overall working. The management has also conducted several specialised courses on eMirsal and integrated systems for clients and company representatives to familiarise them in the use of the latest technology systems that are installed at Dubai Customs."

There was a good response for the training sessions for eMirsal, which uses an advanced technology that will automate key processes at Dubai Customs. More than 362 client representatives of Dubai Customs underwent the training in 2004, which was an 82 per cent rise compared to 2003.

Dubai Customs focussed on enhancing the expertise of its inspectors by conducting training sessions on using X-ray scanning machines. A session was also held by Dubai Police to train customs inspectors on investigation and vigilance. In June 2004, Dubai Customs along with the World Customs Organisation, organised a five-day regional conference on exchange of information and risk management.

"With these training sessions, Dubai Customs aims to create an IT environment that fully complements the eGovernance initiatives undertaken by other government departments in Dubai, to automate their processes and introduce eServices. There has been a significant increase in the number of people attending the training sessions as they recognise the importance of the IT systems in improving the speed and efficiency of processes. This year we have scheduled more training sessions to cover wider areas, thus increasing the scope of these programs," concluded Hassan.