$17 billion needed for higher education in UAE

Continental Insurance, one of the leading insurance brokerage and financial services companies in UAE, on Thursday launched Yes 216, a unique education savings solution targeted at parents to save for their children’s higher education needs.

Under the YES 216 solution parents get the benefits of comprehensive protection combined with savings for their child’s higher education, said a press statement on Thursday.

Ashok Sardana, Managing Director of Continental Insurance Brokers, said: “In the UAE, 95 per cent of all girls and 80 per cent of all boys who enroll in the final year of secondary school opt for higher education. The cost of education has escalated around 4 per cent pa over the last decade. Studies show there are around 870,000 students below the age of 13. Assuming that even 50 per cent of these students go for higher studies, there is a need for over $17 billion as fees at the rate of $10,000 per term. Research has shown that higher education is normally self-funded through parental savings. Yes 216 addresses this need to save for future education amongst the UAE populace. We aim at creating an awareness about the importance of securing their child’s education amongst parents.”

He further added, “Yes 216 is unique because it’s a solution that has been designed to suit individual requirements. It’s targeted at the expatriate population living in the UAE. There is a need for parents to understand that the earlier they start to save for their child’s higher education the easier it is for them to achieve their objective.”

When quizzed about the name “YES 216,” Sardana answered “It is quite a memorable name, especially in this market. We are not used to having numbers in a brand name. While YES stands for Youth Education Savings, 216 is the number of months that parents have from when their child is born until their child turns 18 years i.e. 18 years x12 months equals 216 months. 216 is therefore the number of months that parents have to save for their child’s higher education.”

Yes 216 offers attractive and investor friendly features such as; low monthly commitment, active portfolio management and comprehensive protection benefits. YES 216 offers a guaranteed payout of the target fund amount in case of death, total and permanent disability or diagnosis of critical illness of the parent. The solution is flexible and offers an age-based portfolio management strategy, which is based on the age of the child at the entry point. The plan also allows the investor to choose from balanced, aggressive and conservative investment strategies depending upon the risk profile of the investor.

YES 216 is currently launched in the UAE and will later be launched in GCC and the Mena region.