In the news

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has announced four new partnerships for the creation of more than 1,500 job and training opportunities for Omanis in a variety of sectors.

The company will be collaborating with the National Centre for Employment (NCE), the Ministry of Manpower, Oman Logistics Centre and Daleel Petroleum and Baker Hughes on this effort. The signees will support the creation of training opportunities and full-time jobs for the trainees in a variety of sectors including logistics, engineering and a range of other technical trades.

The Memorandums of Collaboration (MOCs) detailing these initiatives were signed at a ceremony held under the auspices of HE Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Oman Central Bank and Chairman of the NCE Board.

PDO’s collaboration with the NCE aims to explore opportunities for a strategic and operational partnership in order to sustain the job creation drive. This will include the development of a strategy to meet labour demand requirements in various sectors.

HE Sultan Al Habsi, who signed on behalf of NCE, said, The Memorandum of Collaboration signed aims at benefiting from the experience of PDO to provide support to the National Centre of Employment to develop and implement plans to systematically enable Omanis in good and relevant jobs through up-skilling and training programmes, in addition to preparing them to benefit from diversification projects”.

PDO Managing Director Raoul

Restucci, who signed the MoUs with the organisations, said: “We are delighted to build on the success of the National Objectives programme by collaborating with even more partners in the national priority that is job creation.

“There is strong focus on quality training and upskilling jobseekers as we are committed to supporting the Sultanate’s economy and diversifying our support beyond our boundaries to other economic sectors.”

A number of government dignitaries attended the ceremony held at the

PDO’s Knowledge World venue in Muscat, including HE Dr Muna Al Jardani, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Manpower for Technical Education and Vocational Training, and HE Eng. Salim Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport.

PDO has created more than 21,000 job opportunities for Omanis this year including redeployment from expired contracts. Its National Objectives programme targets continue to rise and the Company has already created more than 76,000 job, training, transfer, and redeployment opportunities for Omanis in both the oil and non-oil sectors, such as hospitality, real estate, fashion, tourism and aviation, since its launch in 2011.

GUtech, represented by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Modigell, the Rector, and BP Oman, represented by Yousuf Al Ojaili, the President, have signed a grant agreement to fund a research study on the performance of Solar Photovoltaics (PV) panels. The first phase of the project will focus on studying the effect of weather parameters and soiling on PV panels. In the second phase, the team will concentrate on creating a robot cleaner ought to address the adverse effects of soiling for a more stable energy production. Optimising the energy production of PV panels in Oman can’t be achieved without assessing the loss of energy experienced due to the local weather conditions,

The Rector of GUtech said at the signing and continued: “We feel a huge responsibility for the success of this ICV partnership with BP Oman.”

Yousuf Al Ojaili, BP Oman President commented about the importance of industry and academia cooperation: “We are proud of our partnership with GUtech. It is aligned with our strategic vision to support research and development in the energy sector and is part of our contribution to In Country Value.” He added, “This partnership reaffirms the alignment between industry and academia which can bring significant progress in research outputs and addresses a specific subject of solar energy hence helping in green energy agenda.” Under the one-year-long agreement, the study will be undertaken by GUtech researchers and Omani fresh graduates, in collaboration with Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and Hussam Technology Company (HTC). “PV panels are now increasingly used in Oman. We look forward to opening our laboratories for GUtech team to carry on much needed research on optimising PV panels performance through measuring the adverse effects of local weather conditions on PV cells,” said Dr Rashid Al Abri from the College of Engineering at SQU. Dr Al Abri will be co-supervising the project progress along Al Humairi from GUtech.

“We see this project as an incredible opportunity to understand the effect of weather conditions, as well as soiling on the performance of PV panels,” said Ali Al Humairi from the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at GUtech. “We are looking forward to kicking off the work on the project along two fresh graduates in November.”

HTC is chosen for this project as the sole supplier of all parts needed to carry on the study and create the cleaner robot and a provider of technical support.

“The cooperation with GUtech and

SQU in this project allows not only for the bundling of efforts, but above all brings minds from academia and the industry together for the advancement of research outputs,” commented Dr Firas Al Abduwani, from HTC. GUtech campus is home to the BP Oman funded solar facility that has culminated from collaborations between SGS and HTC back in 2018 and since then has been used for providing training and PV certification to technicians and students.

“A cleaning robot to clear out soiling off the panels in the facility on our campus is much needed,” elaborated Al Humairi. “Creating an automatic device ought to eliminate risks associated with manual cleaning, maximise the panels power output, and minimise humans involvement,” explained Al Humairi. The signing ceremony was held on the sidelines of Ejaad 2nd Leadership Forum event, under the patronage of HE Eng. Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas

Shell Intilaaqah’s Aspire and Inspire Programme, rolled out two of its

Bright Ideas workshops in Muscat at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and in Grand Sur Hotel in collaboration with Oman LNG, to raise awareness on entrepreneurship and the impact of creative thinking in business.

The training workshop in Sur was particularly aimed at providing women with the necessary skills and tools to develop their home businesses, while the programme held at SQU was open to all university and college students across the Sultanate.

Najwa Al Kindi, Director of Shell Intilaaqah Oman, said, “The Bright

Ideas workshops help participants make informed decisions, giving them the skills and confidence, they need to take their businesses to the next level. The sessions were also aimed at providing women with various tools to take lead, control and empower themselves as rising businesswomen in the Sultanate.”

During the interactive two-day workshops, participants were provided guidance in developing their ideas into successful ventures, as well as creating and pitching business proposals. Experts were on hand to assist participants to transform their ideas into reality. Sultan Al Abri, SQU graduate said, “During the Bright Ideas workshop, I had the opportunity to expand my knowledge on how to navigate the business industry, learn vital problem-solving skills and gather the right tools to help me pursue my dreams with the guidance of successful experts.”

Since its establishment, Shell

Intilaaqah’s Aspire and Inspire programme trained more than 10,000 young Omanis. It aims to support entrepreneurs through the various stages of their business start-ups, from developing compelling business ideas, to becoming successful business owners. It also provides specialized counselling, mentoring and training on managing cash crises.