Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: More Omanis are set to replace expats in various fields of employment, after Oman ratified a new National Centre for Employment.
On Thursday, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said issued Royal Decree No. 22/2019 establishing the National Centre for Employment (NCE).
As a result, the Government Communication Centre (GCC) provided details regarding the main role of the National Employment Centre, which will come into effect on January 1, 2020. “The National Employment Centre is a mid to long-term plan to replace expats with Omanis in various fields,” the officials announced.
“The centre will open branches in various governorates of the Sultanate and will suggest existing qualified Omani jobseekers for job positions before the Ministry of Manpower approves requests for labour permits to fill these positions,” added the GCC statement.
This means that if a company files a request for a visa to allow an expat to fill a job position, the centre will first check whether there are qualified Omani jobseekers who can do the job.
Mohammed Al Busaidi, chairman of the Youth and Human Resources Committee at the Shura Council, said: “The idea of the National Centre for Employment is not new and has been suggested on more than one occasion over the past years in different ways. The idea was formally generated through the National Programme for Enhancing Economic Diversification(Tanfeedh) labs.
“The centre is not a goal in itself. What is important to us is the composition of the centre, its powers, its management, and its financial and human resources. We hope that the centre will be integrated and not just another institution within the state institutions or just another experiment to deal with the issue of jobseekers after previous experiences,” said Al Busaidi.
The National Centre for Employment will also provide work counselling services for jobseekers and is to be a one-stop shop which provides a complete package of services for jobseekers and business owners.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) owners will find it easier to search for employment.
The first-of-its-find centre will work together with other agencies related to the labour mark in the Sultanate.
SMEs
“The centre will coordinate with training centres to link jobseekers to suitable training, and it will also coordinate with SMEs to allow them to hire jobseekers,” the GCC said.
“The centre will also work with authorities to find jobs for jobseekers who have degrees with low demand within the market. If a position cannot be found, the centre will retrain those jobseekers,” a spokesman added.
Another feature of the National Employment Centre is that it will “facilitate SME access to jobseeker databases which will accelerate the process of job interviews and hiring procedures,” the GCC added.
The government also announced that the Public Authority for Manpower Registry will be abolished once the centre begins.
