The Youth and Human Resources Committee at the Shura Council hosted this morning (Monday) His Excellency Saeed Al Balushi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour for Human Resources Development, along with a number of specialists from the Ministry, to discuss the expressed desire to strengthen the role of government entities in training and preparing national capabilities for future jobs, and to review the Ministry's efforts in developing the training and qualification system in line with economic and technological shifts and the future needs of the labour market.
At the outset of the meeting, His Excellency Younis Al Manthari, Chairman of the Youth and Human Resources Committee at the Shura Council, welcomed the Undersecretary of Labour and the Ministry's specialists, noting that the Ministry plays an important role in honing and developing the skills and capabilities of national employees and cadres. He underlined the significance of hosting the Ministry as the entity responsible for this dimension of the national project, and the resulting need to align training and qualification programmes with economic and technological shifts and labour-market requirements.
The Ministry of Labour then delivered a visual presentation reviewing the current state of future jobs and skills, labour-market needs, and the Ministry's efforts in managing and developing human resources in line with the requirements of the knowledge and digital economy, alongside the Ministry's vision for developing initiatives and programmes to prepare national capabilities for future skills and jobs. The presentation also addressed the importance of shifting from addressing the labour market's current needs to anticipating and preparing for its future needs, and linking training and qualification programmes to the needs of economic sectors in line with the priorities of Oman Vision 2040.
The meeting also reviewed the Ministry's efforts in assessing the current state of jobs in light of economic and technological shifts, forecasting the jobs and skills likely to be affected by digital transformation and artificial intelligence, and identifying alternative skills and pathways for retraining and requalification. The presentation further covered the study of labour-market needs for future jobs, the analysis of required skills and competencies in coordination with economic sectors, the development of qualification programmes for digital and future skills, and strengthening integration between government entities and the private sector to monitor emerging and evolving jobs and skills.
The meeting also addressed the Ministry's efforts in managing and developing human resources in line with the knowledge economy and digital transformation, building a national system for strategic human-resources planning, and preparing initiatives and programmes to qualify public-sector employees, jobseekers, entrepreneurs and talented individuals, as well as developing 


national capabilities in digital transformation, artificial intelligence and data analysis, thereby strengthening national readiness for the requirements of future jobs.
The meeting further discussed the Ministry's role, in coordination with the Ministry of Education, in introducing technology- and innovation-based specialisations, aligning professional programmes and specialisations with national and international professional standards and the needs of priority economic sectors, alongside the mechanisms for supervision and coordination with government entities in implementing national training and qualification programmes in line with future job requirements, thereby ensuring that job needs are identified, training programmes are aligned with them, and implementation is monitored and training impact measured.
The honourable Committee Members then raised a number of enquiries and observations, including the absorptive capacity of vocational colleges in delivering training and qualification processes, the importance of establishing a programme to requalify discharged personnel to support their reintegration into the labour market, and questions regarding a number of government programmes for staff training and qualification.
Committee Members also called for strengthening the partnership between the Shura Council and the Ministry of Labour in matters related to vocational training, underlining the importance of providing statistics and performance indicators for existing programmes, and measuring the impact of training and its contribution to closing skills gaps and raising the readiness of the national workforce.
The discussion with the Undersecretary concluded by affirming the importance of strengthening partnership with the private sector in training and qualifying national capabilities for future jobs, by identifying current and future job and skills needs, monitoring gaps requiring training or requalification, aligning training programmes with required skills and professional standards, and drawing on the expertise of private-sector institutions in practical training, knowledge transfer, and linking training opportunities to employment opportunities.
The meeting was chaired by His Excellency Younis Al Manthari, Chairman of the Youth and Human Resources Committee at the Shura Council, and attended by the honourable Committee Members.