Jeddah, March 6: The policy of employing foreign labor
under the Nitaqat program should be strictly implemented, a Shoura Council
official said yesterday.
"A foreign worker's visa should be limited up to
five years and during that period a Saudi should work with him and eventually
replace him. This could be a practical solution to the implementation of
Nitaqat and realization of Saudization," Saad Mariq, chairman of the
Shoura Council's Financial Affairs, said participating in a panel discussion at
the ongoing 12th Jeddah Economic Forum.
Upgrading vocational training to meet the requirement
of raising the skills and qualification of Saudi workforce was also emphasized
at the session on "Transforming Employment: The Job Creation
Imperative."
Turki Al-Dakhil, an Al Arabiya presenter, conducted
the session.
Mariq stressed that education, qualification and
training were among the key factors in making the Saudi workforce capable of
replacing their overseas counterparts. "Unfortunately, the scenario showed
that only 30 percent importance was being given to education, and the remaining
70 percent was divided between qualification and training," he said,
adding that Saudis remained far beyond in the race for jobs because they could
not fulfill the requirement of qualification and training.
"We have to train Saudis and bring them to the
level of the requirements in the employment market," he said and mentioned
that four million of the eight million foreign workers lacked the right
qualification and skills for the jobs they did.
Mariq called on the authorities to see that every
dollar or riyal invested in the economy should be equally spent on Saudi
education. "Merely educating them or producing graduates is not enough. It
should go in parallel with capacity building so that the economy continues to
create job opportunities."
Ibrahim Al-Moaiqel, director general, Human Resources
Development Fund (HRDF), said women constituted 75 percent of job seekers in
the Kingdom. "While directing attention to the growing unemployment among
women, I don't mean to suggest that unemployment among men should be
overlooked."
The growing unemployment among Saudis is posing a
serious challenge to the employers of both the public and private sectors, he
said and mentioned that there is a general preference among women for teaching
jobs. "When preparing the data under the Hafiz program, more than two
million jobless people sent in their names for registration," he said.
Why always look around for jobs; they should also
aspire to be entrepreneurs. "Entrepreneurship is the answer for new
graduates," said Dalia Mogahed, executive director and senior analyst,
Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. However, she cautioned that the US experience
shows that as many as 90 percent startups initiated by new graduates tended to
fail. "Successful are those who have five to 10 years of experience,
especially managing people at work, and then they launch themselves into
entrepreneurship. Such successful entrepreneurs are extraordinary and a rare
breed of people." She highlighted the fact that the region has the highest
unemployment among women. "What dictates the need for employment among
women is economics and not social factors. Also, strangely, as men's employment
goes up, women's unemployment rises."
Professor Gerhard Bosch, director of the Institute for
work, skills and training (IAQ) at the university of Duisburg-Essen, Germany,
speaking on the "Changing employment relationship," said innovation,
training and employment were the key factors that guided the creation of 40
million jobs in Germany. "Make high investments in R&D continuously
and employ young people by providing them apprenticeships," was his call
to the region's employers. North America and Europe have recorded a faster
integration of young people through modernization and training, he said and
emphasized the need for consistently upgrading vocational training.
Nada Al-Nashif, regional director, ILO Regional office
in Beirut, said the region that grew at five percent in 2011 lacked quality
jobs although it did not suffer from quantity of jobs. "The Saudi labor
market is faced with challenges. There is a complex task of training jobseekers
with the requisite skills. We need trade, investment and training to go hand in
hand to meet the requirement of labor market. Thus, we need a strong and
vibrant private sector to address such issues."
Jorg Schubert, a panelist, referring to the employment
markets in the region said Middle East North Africa would need to create 70
million new jobs. Of them, the GCC will have to account for 8 million and Saudi
Arabia 5 million in the foreseeable future.
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