Ban on expats in specified private higher education jobs

A new decree issued by the Minister of Manpower, Abduallah Al Bakri, has banned the appointment of non-Omanis to certain professions.

According to Article 1 of the decree No. 533/2018, the professions are in private higher education institutions and private training institutions. These include the director of admissions and registration department, director of student affairs, director of quality assurance and director of the career guidance department.

The employment permits that have already been issued for nonOmanis for the occupations specified in Article 1 of this decree will continue until the end of their contracts. These contracts will not be renewed.

According to the ministry’s data, “The Omanisation rate in technical colleges at the dean’s position is 100 per cent, administrative staff is at 98 per cent, technicians is 57 per cent and academic cadres stood at 20 per cent, which the ministry seeks to increase by hiring more lecturers.”

The implementation of the Ministry’s “preparation programme” has contributed to the appointment of 387 Omani lecturers with a master’s degree; in addition, the ministry also sent 120 lecturers abroad to receive their doctorates, to work as lecturers at various technical colleges.

More than 62,000 Omani job seekers have been hired in the private sector as of the end of November. According to officials from the Ministry of Manpower, 22,000 of those hired for jobs were new graduates, who were employed in the private sector as part of the country’s policy of Omanisation.

According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), of the 2,041,190 workers in the private sector, only 250,717 are Omanis, with the vast majority – 87.72 per cent – being expatriates. More than 40,000 Omanis have been given jobs in private sector companies, as part of the Omanisation policy.

The NCSI reports that the unemployment rate for Omanis between 25 and 29 dropped 13.6 per cent over the last month, by 11 per cent for those between 30 and 34 years, and by 7.1 per cent for locals from 35 to 39 years of age, as companies begin to carry out the national Omanisation policy.