Saturday, March 30, 2013

Nitaqat - an opportunity for change / improvement


Some opportunities are hidden under every challenge!

NITAQATH is a new challenge paused in front of the expatriate (pravasee) community in KSA.

At this stage instead of worrying and taking short term steps, we should make some long term plans and solutions.

The changing scenario of the labour market in KSA is not new. When I came in here, in 1991, most of the people from north Kerala were on Umrah visa, who stayed back for doing some odd jobs! Today you hardly find any Umrah visa holder at work. Number of free visa holders are also far less comparatively.

NITAQATH, should challenge us to explore creative solutions and propose them to the authorities. If we can propose some good solutions to the state and central governments now it may be heard / implemented and it will become beneficial for us in the long term!

- We should make job specific training to our work force.
- Training should be given in spoken english and spoken arabic
- Courses like Quantity surveying should be promoted (Like in Sreelanka, RICS course of UK etc.). JDT Islam polytechnic has a course on quantity surveying.
- BIM (Building Information Modelling) training should be promoted.
- Finishing school should be promoted
- Make plans to transfer the experience of the gulf returnees to the job market of Kerala. make them interact with the new generation job seekers.
- Promote mentoring of professional students by a subject expert from the job market.

Let all of us, individuals & organizations, try to make recommendations in our area of expertise. Let government officials be informed of those proposals. Let us make the required lobbying to make sure that there are some changes / improvements made out of this challenge, NITAQATH.

Tail: I saw the news that in TIRUR, someone has opened a chicken stall named after NITAQATH! 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Personally i think its a wonderful idea.. it did spire a couple of thoughts in me...

I wonder if we can take the initative to start such a program in collaboration with the Man power services and the related government agencies;both here and in india to start an accredition program for the likes you mentioned (QS, QA/QC, Draftsmen, planners, etc). A certification from this program will povide them better jb and direct recruitment opportunities as well, hence the sponsorship issues will be eradicated.

This could be a major project for Focus Jeddah and may be a business project too.
Mohammed Rabeeh