By Samuel Kutty — MUSCAT: March 14 - While the Sultanate has prioritised tourism and hospitality sector as one of the major means to generate jobs for nationals, availability of skilled workforce is becoming a challenge. According to reports from the sector, the demand for trained Omanis is high thanks to the opening of new properties by major international hotel chains. But experts involved in training Omani students for the tourism and hospitality sector say the demand is unmet for several reasons. “The shortage is happening mainly due to non-availability of sufficient funding for vocational training. This deters students from joining training programmes to become eligible for the jobs,” said an official of a company.
In a study on the future of tourism in Oman, two scholars in Sultan Qaboos University, opined that the Omanisation drive in the sector has met with limited success due to gaps such as lack of interest in joining the sector, shortage of skilled Omani staff especially with regards to language skills in the tourism industry in general and tour guidance specifically. National Hospitality Institute, which is a leading provider of quality vocational training for hospitality, catering and travel sectors, in its annual report pointed out that for the first four-month period in 2016, only 42 new trainees were sent to the company in spite of employers requisitioning training for 274 identified jobs for this period.
“As a result, many young Omanis, keen to learn and gain employment, with the requisite interest, have had to be turned away.” The cause of this was the cessation of vocational training funding in June last year,” Tarik al Said, chairman of the company, points out in the company’s annual report.
Although recruitment in public sector is limited as per the 2017 budget, the Ministry of Finance has provided allocations for activating the role of National Training Fund (NTF) in order to advance recruitment efforts in private sector. The Fund is set up by Royal Decree No 48/2016 and aims to build the capabilities of the Omani workforce in order to bridge the gap between the market supply and demand.
According to 2040 Tourism Strategy, Oman will attract five million visitors, add more than 50,000 hotel rooms and generate 535,574 direct and indirect jobs by the end of the implementation period. The tourism industry witnessed a growth of 17.7 per cent in visitor turnout in 2015 alone, taking annual numbers to 2.4 million. “Quality vocational training to young Omanis is needed now more than ever as more and more hotels open their doors for business and need competent staff”, says Tarik. According to a study by Dr M Firdouse Rahman Khan and Jayashree Krishanamurthy of Sultan Qaboos University, the government should take measures to enhance and fix up a better salary structures for tourism industries sector.
“Government assistance should be provided in the form of training, policy reformations towards entrepreneurs venturing in tourism sector,” the study suggests. Hotels and tourism companies should volunteer to recruit the institutions to provide internship to tourism qualified professionals.
“Educational institutions should include more practical field visits and tours so as to provide the students with the hands on training facilities so that the students will be attracted towards tourism sector and motivated to take up tourism and hospitality jobs which will push up the younger generation to boost up the fast growing economic growth and development of Oman,” the study adds.
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