Tausende junge Menschen nehmen derzeit ein Studium an Hochschuleinrichtungen im Sultanat Oman auf. Vielen von ihnen wird nicht bewusst sein, wie schwierig es werden wird, einen Arbeitsplatz in einem Markt zu finden, der bereits mit arbeitslosen Absolventen überflutet ist.
Population growth outstrips employment opportunities in Oman
Higher education institutions will receive next week thousands of students
who start their degree courses, with many of them unaware that they will
struggle to find jobs in a market already flooded with unemployed
graduates.
As it is, hundreds of graduates in the last academic year are
still waiting for jobs. For those who enrol for the popular business degrees
they will learn about the 'law of diminishing marginal returns' when jobs are
created leading to stagnated production.
This is happening because the
government is forced to employ half of them just to keep them out of mischief to
avoid a repeat of 2011. Some of whom, which the government cannot take in, will
wind up in jobs they could have had if they came straight out of
school.
Thirty years ago, 100 per cent of graduates with degrees in
various disciplines had jobs waiting for them. In 1993, according to the same
statistics, 87 per cent found jobs within three months and in 2003 about 65 per
cent were employed within 90 days of their graduation. Last year, just 40 per
cent of the graduates were recruited within the same time lapse. What happened
during the last three decades?
Omani population increased by 20 per cent
First, thanks to the baby boom, the Omani population increased by 20 per cent. More students have enrolled in schools producing more graduates than the
market can absorb. Second, while it is true that development has expanded the
job market, both the private and government sectors cannot keep up with the pace
of population growth generating enough new positions.
Third, half of the
new projects in the last decade required specialised skills that new graduates
do not have. These jobs are filled by expatriates with the right qualifications.
In the next decade to 2024, Oman is striving to set up industries in
manufacturing, natural gas, transport and logistics. In theory, this business
expansion has a huge potential to generate tens of thousands of jobs across the
nation.
Opportunities, again on a theoretical template, will open up when
smaller towns along the coast get connected with the planned railway system and
the network of the huge natural gas hub. However, in half of these jobs, the
new recruits will either be over-qualified or these jobs will be reserved for
undergraduates. This is where the main shortcomings of the graduates armed with
degrees exist. The education system may need a revamp, not the industry that
creates jobs, as most people would like to think. The industries will not create
vacancies to suit graduates but the other way around.
Huge mismatch between jobs available and required skills
The way it is now,
there is a huge mismatch between jobs available and the required skills. The
Ministry of Higher Education has realised for the first time in four decades
that it needs the help of the industries to work with universities. Industries
do not have time or the money to train a graduate to be job ready. Local
universities and colleges, on the other hand, have no resources in their
curriculum programmes to impart specialised training to students as required by
potential employers.
The fact remains that industry bosses get criticised
for turning away graduates who don't fit their requirements. In their defence,
Oman's major human resources agencies want the government to subsidise and pay
for the training of graduates to make them attractive to employers. The
government is already paying about OMR12,000 for each student to acquire a degree and
they would need to come up with an unspecified amount of money if it decides to
go ahead with the training subsidy.
Another problem that graduates face
is the recruitment process. The online job seeking registration method promoted
by the Ministry of Manpower has its flaws. It is not updated regularly and
officials do not follow up with job availability as frequently as they
should.
The link between the website and employers is not well
established either. Companies that need graduates struggle to have access. Many
graduates are not happy with the recruitment process saying that a lot needs to
be done with the official online platform.
In a nutshell, the only way
forward is to promote self-employment so some of the graduates do not have to
rely on landing jobs but create their own business opportunities. All these big
projects in the process can be the answer for them provided the government will
stop favouring the same big corporate houses from monopolising everything.