Close to 1,200 public sector workers in Oman considered for higher education

Muscat: Nearly 1,200 employees from the state’s administration have been considered for admission to graduate and post-graduate studies by the Ministry of Labour.

The effort to train these 1,190 employees comes within the efforts of the government to improve the skills and knowledge levels of public sector employees, in line with the priority to develop human capital, as directed under the Royal care of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik.

The plans to send these employees for further education also falls within the economic and social development efforts of Oman Vision 2040. In this context, the Directorate General of Training at the Ministry of Labour has relentlessly worked over the past year to identify and provide learning opportunities for staff.

These efforts came under the Ministry of Labour’s prerogatives under Royal Decree No. 89/2020, which stipulates the basis and criteria for training opportunities among the various teams employed in public administration.

“The training department at the DG of Training is also keen to improve the skills of human capital, by making quality training available,” said a statement from the Ministry of Labour. “A number of training programmes and workshops were organised in 2021, through the former Institute of Public Administration.”

These sessions, which were held in cooperation with private sector organisations and funded by the oil and gas sector, were attended by 53 employees. Furthermore, some 156 employees took part in a free-of-charge online workshop organised in 2021 by Petroleum Development Oman.

A further 148 participants took part in five online training programmes run by the Higher Judicial Institute to increase their awareness of legal matters.

A number of employees also went overseas for training: Cooperation agreements struck with other countries meant 50 participants went to train with the Diwan of Civil Service in Jordan. Another 90 employees went to other countries, namely India (where 50 staff were trained); Kuwait, China and Singapore (15 each), Malaysia (three employees), and Japan (two employees).

30 employees also trained with Oman International Trade and Exhibitions Co and Arabian Research Bureau, and 110 more were taken under the wing of Alassayel Conferences Company.