Saturday 16 / November / 2024
Muscat: A senior professor declared he supports a decision by ministers to employ local residents, regardless of their fields of study at universities.
Dr Ahmed Hasan Al Balushi, dean of Caledonian College of Engineering, said the proposal would solve the unemployment problem in Oman.
“Local companies search for ready-made workers who can do any job without training,” Al Balushi said, “while universities equip their students with all the basic tools and knowledge to fit in any job related to their major.”
However, he said that training, which most institutions in Oman do not focus on, is critical.
“International companies understand how important it is to train a new graduate while, sadly, most local companies are not aware of that,” he explained.
The suggestion came during a closed-door meeting with Majlis Al Shura youth and education committees.
Shura member Tawfiq Al Lawati added that adopting this proposal would allow for more job vacancies to be filled by Omanis.
However, he pointed out that hiring in technical professions, such as medicine and engineering, would not be regulated under this suggestion.
“Internationally, around 80 per cent of college graduates have jobs that are not related to their majors,” Al Lawati explained, adding that obtaining a higher education degree is “not the end of the road”, which is why Omanis who struggle to find a job should be trained to cultivate their communication, technical and other skills.
“Job-seekers need to think outside the box and learn other skills to boost their chances of getting a job,” he added.
Ali Al Hanai, an Omani man who recently graduated from Nizwa College of Applied Sciences, strongly agrees with the ministers’ proposal.
Al Hanai is a public relations graduate, but he said that the college has qualified him to work in more than one field.
“We had lectures on business management, design and marketing, and I think I can do well in those jobs,” he said, adding that with a good foundation, companies would cultivate the graduate’s basic skills through training.
New graduates
Abdul Jaleel Al Ajmi, a UK graduate, said that new graduates must be employed quickly, since they are more excited to join the labour market and have better knowledge about the latest trends in their fields.
“I am specialised in well engineering, but I also studied mechanical and electrical engineering, and I have enough background to work in these professions,” he added.
Khalid Al Farei, head of the education committee of Shura, echoed Al Lawati, saying this decision will “help in handling the current situation”.
“If they are qualified, I think people should apply for jobs which require similar basic skills, as learned in their majors,” Al Farei added, while saying that educational institutions must also prepare students to work in more than one field.
In contrast, Sonia Ambrosi, journalism professor at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and a former journalist from Brazil, blamed the graduates, not the companies, for being “selective” about the working place and hours of companies they might consider working for.
Recent figures supported her statement, as a study prepared by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), entitled ‘The Trends of Omani Youths Towards Work,’ pointed out that most Omani youths prefer working for the public sector, even if their salaries are less than in the private sector.
The study also revealed a high preference rate in the public sector among job seekers, at 95 per cent, while 85 per cent of the employed prefer to work in the public sector.
She said many “unqualified graduates” join the public sector and bleed money from the state.
“This can cause problems to the upcoming groups that might remain unemployed,” she added.
She explained that Omanis continue to avoid working in the retail and construction sectors.
Commenting on the training dilemma which faces many graduates in Oman, Sonia said “there is a room for improvement between educational institutions and industries in the Sultanate.”
Meanwhile, Anwar Al Khanbashi, an SQU graduate who is working in marketing, despite his four years of studying public relations, said that an employee should only work in field that reflect the training received in his educational major.
He explained that he would leave his current position to take a public relation’s job, even if it paid less.
