Muscat: The Ministry of Labour is planning to create 35,000 jobs this year in the public and private sectors. This was stated by Dr Mahad bin Said Baowain, Minister of Labour, on Thursday while announcing the ministry’s annual plans on Thursday.

In the future, employment will not be based on degrees but on skills. It encourages everyone to develop their skills to match job opportunities, as these skills are what will open up opportunities for individuals and give them a better chance of getting jobs, a top MoL official said.

Dr Baowain said the total number of employees in permanent and temporary jobs in the government sector reached about 195,902 by the end of August 2023, including 170,735 Omanis and 25,167 non-Omanis. In the private sector, there are 2,145,553 workers including 253,399 Omanis and 1,892,154 non-Omanis.

A study is being conducted to look into families where no one is working. The study will see limiting competition to this category or create a programme dedicated only to this category.

In a related context, he shed light on the controversy surrounding the Omani Aviation Training Programme, which has raised many questions in recent times, including the current status of the trainee pilots and their fate after they complete the training.

Dr Baowain said due to the financial crisis at Oman Air, there is now a challenge hiring graduates who have completed the training. He said the ministry is continuing discussions and negotiations with the relevant authorities to find appropriate solutions to this problem.

The Ministry of Labour announced a new strategy to transfer employment responsibility to sectors. This means that the owners of these sectors will be responsible for providing the human resources that the sector needs. According to Shaikh Nasr bin Amer al Hosni, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Labour for Labour, the result of this will be seen in the coming year, where quality jobs are available. Al Hosni added that what the ministry will do is provide logistical support and also training in coordination with the owners of these sectors.

He added that there are jobs that no one knows about or knows how to allocate them except those who are in these sectors. Al Hosni pointed out that there is a good experience regarding this strategy with the energy and oil sector in particular, which now manages its human resources needs. He said this experience will be applied in other sectors such as tourism, fisheries and higher education.

In a related context, Al Hosni said that what matters to job-seekers now is to know that the transition between sectors now exists. Where a person can work in the private sector and apply for a job in the public or government sector, and the opposite is also true, because insurance is now unified in one fund. Al Hosni said many job-seekers in the past refrained from working in the private sector and waited for a government job, believing that working in the private sector would not allow them to apply for employment in the government sector.

In the future, employment will not be based on degrees but on skills. It encourages everyone to develop their skills to match job opportunities, as these skills are what will open up opportunities for individuals and give them a better chance of getting jobs, Al Hosni said.

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