Royal initiative for Jobs

The recent Royal Directive establishing the National Recruitment Centre (NRC) is a clear indication that the government of Oman is fully committed to providing jobs to its nationals. The Royal orders have set the ball rolling with clear instructions about its structure, roles and goals to make the recruitment process more dynamic and transparent. Article 5 of the Royal order clearly instructs “all units of the State’s administrative apparatus and establishments of the private sector to provide the National Recruitment Centre with job vacancies, professions and positions to be occupied in coordination with the departments concerned.”

The dynamics are clear here to address the issue of job creation for Omanis as per their qualification, experience and expertise. To make the agency a dynamic unit, the Council of Ministers put stress on the fact that there is a provision in the NRC to incorporate both public and private sectors to expedite the rate of employment and tackle any challenges that might erupt. Skill development is a major challenge in front of the State’s administrative apparatus and here lies the role of the training institutes and educational institutions to carry forward the important task of making the young Omanis job ready through rigorous training and courses that fit into the needs of the job market.

“The NRC will coordinate with the training and educational institutions to enrol job-seekers in appropriate training programmes, oversee the establishment of employment offices from the private sector, develop an integrated plan to address the issue of a gap between the job-seekers and the actual labour market needs,” a statement issued by the Government Communication (GC) said. The NRC will serve as a single window as it will be equipped with a database of job-seekers, availability of jobs with the public and private sector establishments and new job creations in the relevant sectors.

Review of legislation would be part of the NRC’s role to make it an effective agency, an updated entity that can revert with authentic response both from the job-seekers and job providers. As a major job facilitator, the NRC would be equipped with staff who can provide career counselling. “It will provide career guidance services to job-seekers, work on programmes to help replace the expatriates with Omanis in different sectors, provide support to the groups that have difficulty finding employment,” said another statement issued by the Government Communication.