Qatarisation jobs policy 'should be suspended'

Saturday, 27 December 2008 10:30 AM

Qatarisation plans by the Ministry of Labour should be postponed until a well-trained generation of young Qatari men and women is available, it has been claimed.

That was the message from a seminar on Nationalisation of Jobs which was organised by the Institute for Administrative Development in Doha, local Arabic daily Arrayah reported.

The participants said that until such a cadre of national youth emerged in the job market the policy of Qatarisation of jobs, which aims to get more nationals into the workforce, was nothing but “deadwood employment”.

The gap between the number of expatriates and nationals employed in diverse fields would remain until a strategic plan was chalked out and implemented, delegates at the seminar said.

As many as 20,000 expatriates are employed every year compared to only 2,000 nationals.

The participants called for the setting up of a national body for the development of human resources to address the problem of evolving courses of study required for the job market.

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Posted by: marijke Sunday, 28 December 2008 12:09 PM[UAE] - Bahrain

There are plenty of young educated people in the Gulf. That's not the problem. People need to understand that working is more than showing up at the office. The current generation is spoiled, and that doesn't only show in their attitude towards work. There are so many skilled people needed and there are plenty of nationals who are unemployed. It's all about the attitude and the idea that certain jobs are not good enough for them or don't bring enough status

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Posted by: Manal Hamid Sunday, 28 December 2008 10:11 AM[UAE]

As an Emirati I am so frustrated with hearing comments about our supposed poor work ethic or attitude towards work. In fact, when non-nationals (and nationals) propagate such false information they are simply making it more difficult for nationals who are motivated and career driven to be taken seriously. You will find "dead weight" in any society-it is not something that is unique to the UAE or Gulf societies. However, since it is nearly impossible to fire a national then these "dead weights" are not sifted out and as a result all nationals are tagged as having poor work ethics and attitudes. Please, stop generalizing, stop spreading such false information and open your eyes to all of the hard working nationals. I can't believe that in my own country I have to do double the amount of work of a non-national to get my foreign boss to take me seriously and it's because of comments made by people like Sam and Joe.

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Posted by: sam Pitroda Saturday, 27 December 2008 3:19 PM[UAE]

I second joe's comment. Improper attitude towards work is the real problem. And the culprit is their upbringing. Educate their parents and convince them the importance of bringing up their children with values. Oil will not last for long :-)

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Posted by: Joe Saturday, 27 December 2008 12:20 PM[UAE]

The issue is not the education of Qataris or GCC nationals but their work ethic. This is a problem throughout the Gulf. "Dead wood" hiring in banks is the best example. I am sure these national hires have the proper education but most of them do not want to do the work. Their ex-pat co-workers have no choice but to work even harder to compensate for the nationals who do not pull their weight. Education without work ethic will not solve the problem.

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