Oman needs to create 50,000 jobs a year for nationals says expert

UK project management specialist to address delegates from public and private sector organisations at the Oman HR and Nationalisation conference; targeted skills training key to achieving Oman’s nationalisation strategy

Project management expert Ed Hughes, from ESI International, the world's leading project management training company, is to address delegates at the upcoming Oman Human Resources and Nationalisation conference which is taking place at the Park Inn by Radisson in Muscat, on 23 - 25 February.

Hughes who is the manager of college programmes at ESI, will deliver a technical presentation highlighting the benefits of reducing Oman’s reliance on expatriate labour, by targeting project management in key industry sectors, where nationalisation take-up is at its lowest.

Statistics have shown that in sectors like IT and oil and gas, Omanis in project management related functions, only represent 15% and 22% respectively of the total workforce compared with 70% in telecoms and 30% in construction.

“With indigenous population growth at current levels, Oman needs to create some 50,000 jobs annually to stop unemployment, which is estimated at 15% from rising any further,” said Hughes.

“But Omanis must be given the right skills to be of value and not merely to meet quotas. For example around 60% of the oil and gas sector workforce is Omani, but about 63% of those are employed in the lower designations. Without technical skills being accessible, Oman will be forced to give jobs in areas such as project management, to expatriate workers,” added Hughes.

This view is supported by a recent recruitment event held by a contractor for Petroleum Development Oman, which was looking to fill 100 vacancies. “Although 300 Omanis applied, 30% wanted a helpdesk position and most of the other applicants didn’t have the necessary technical skills to be hired,” he said.

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI) 15.7 million new project management roles will need to be created globally by 2020 just to keep up with demand.

“With Oman planning US$ 112 billion worth of projects by 2020, US$ 96 billion of which will be over the next three to four years alone, it is an opportunity for Omanis to fill project management roles, in sectors that are delivering Oman’s critical mass of projects,” said Hughes.     

The benefits to the Omani treasury are clear, replacing expatriates with Omani workers would help to reduce public spending on subsidised utilities and health services. It would also reduce Oman’s balance of payments deficit because workers’ remittances would be lower, leading to an increase in domestic spending, contributing to faster GDP growth.

Hughes’ co-presenter, Dr. Ramin Mhajer, will present a case study from Azerbaijan, which was experiencing similar difficulties with nationalisation. But having established their ‘School of Project Management’, the results so far are a clear indication of how Oman could develop, with over 95 companies participating and 250 participants trained.

The Oman HR and Nationalisation conference will focus on helping companies attract Omanis to their organisation to meet the nationalisation targets. The conference also contains an overview of the motivational factors leading to decreased staff turnover underscoring the country’s objective to create a high performance work culture.

For more information on ESI please their website: http://www.esi-intl.ae/