Oman

Focus on future skills must for better jobs

 
A two-day conference on skills to build a sustainable future started as part of the GHEDEX Series under the auspices of Sayyid Salim bin Musallam al Busaidy, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Labour.

OITE organises the conference, and this year, the Global Higher Education Exhibition is to be held in Oman in May.

On the first day of the event, the CEO panel looked at future skills and HRD at the corporate level. The theme of session two was future skills taught at schools and colleges; panel two featured the topic of future skills start-ups — skills in demand, and panel three addressed effective job-seeking tips.

Maryam al Amri, CEO of Youth Vision, a social enterprise, said the future skills are not yet to come. Instead, she pointed out that they were already here.

“We are in an era that is moving very fast and evolving. We must ask ourselves how we can learn and adapt to the new way of thinking, working and learning not the ways, but also the topics, as everything is connected now. The economy has an impact on the social aspect,” explained Maryam.

She said the focus is on skills because that will make us flexible to learn anything in the world.

“The skills will allow us to prepare ourselves to learn anything, even if it is changing very fast.”

Innovative thinking is important as it will help solve complicated problems no matter what your background is or what your major is. She noted that one must have these skills to solve problems in the future. “Sustainability, for example, needs these skills. It makes one more effective.”

@lakshmioman