Nobody discounts the efforts made by the authorities concerned for the employment of national workforce in private sector in the Sultanate, although some businessmen and investors believe that the job market should be free to choose depending on the need of the companies. This will help private sector to stand up and compete with others in the region.
In spite of the validity of this argument, the national workforce needs to be regulated, so that the Omani aspirant for a job does not jump form one company to the other without any positive outcome, in a time he sees the number of foreign workers are increasing year after year in the private sector.
Today national universities, colleges, as well as foreign ones provide the market with thousands of graduates in different disciplines. In this context, today we see that the policy of Omanisation needs a new impetus, at a time when the number of migrant workers began to fall to reach 1.735 million at the end of November 2018, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information, and the Royal Oman Police.
As it is known, majority of these workers are men (almost 1.575 million) in the private sector and around 58,000 in the government sector.
In this regard, the establishment of the National Employment Centre to regulate all matters regarding the employment of nationals, whether in government or private institutions, is a welcome move. This comes within the framework of the national programme to promote economic diversification to transform the private sector into more attractive for nationals, and to address the challenges that limit the employment of nationals in this sector.
The centre will be targeting all initiatives to achieve new indicators during the next phase, and to achieve economic diversification in manufacturing, tourism and logistics sectors. These initiatives in the job market are aimed at bridging the gap between supply and demand in the labour sector through two parallel tracks — the first is to empower demand and meet the needs of employers by applying employment policies linked to partial and temporary work, and the second to regulate the issuance of work permits.
One of the goals of this new centre is to guide the preparation and operation of the job-seekers and stability, creation of data on labour force and connect them electronically with all units of the administrative apparatus of the state (civil, military and security). This will help in preparing job-seekers in proportion to qualifications and practical experience, as well as to encourage them to attend training programmes
to equip them with vocational skills according to the needs of the labour market.
The centre will coordinate with the authorities concerned to determine the priorities of education, training and the needs of the labour market. It includes support to strategic sectors and development projects and national skills, besides studying and analysing the functional needs of the sectors.
This will enable the national cadre to occupy different jobs and professions, next to conduct research and studies in partnership with various educational, training and operational agencies to support the operation of the national labour force.
Despite these efforts to regulate the Omani labour market, there is a need for further understanding and follow-up so that the investor does not face any difficulty in obtaining the
workforce he expects once he gets trained and qualified workers who can take responsibilities.
It is very important for the next stage that requires the promotion of social dialogue within the three parties namely the government, the private sector and employers to achieve maximum levels of cooperation, and to work on creating an attractive work environment to achieve stability and job security for nationals in the private sector.
haiderdawood@hotmail.com
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