Vocational job creation

So here we are in 2013.  Sure with lots of plans, hopes and resolutions.

Just saw that the government aims to create 56,000 jobs forOmanis this year:  36,000 in the public sector (of which 20,000 in military) and 16,000 in the private sector. Wow! That’s over 1000 freshmen every week of the year.  There is certainly a challenge in the volume and also the relatively short period over which they have to be achieved. One might think this will not encourage quality in the selections.

Perhaps on the longer term, some more consideration could be also given to the qualitative, vocational aspects of job creation.  It is hard to believe that all those 20,000 who will be newly employed by the military, do see their carriers as soldiers or support staff. Perhaps a lot of them yes but more likely not most of them.

May sound a bit like leapfrogging some stages of labor market development, but I think employers should have an increasingly vocational perspective towards new hires. Even when it comes to quotas.  Asking people why they are going for that job should not only be a checklist interviewing question. Add on  how do they imagine a day work in that position looks like, and what they see themselves doing in five years, and you’ll pretty quickly get all parts of the puzzle.

There is nothing more disappointing than seeing a service person hating his/her job. Especially in the hospitality and tourism related service areas. It’s not only about service level and quality. It’s also about the sustainability of employment figures. Those people forced in their jobs, sooner or later will feel frustrated and quit, or survive day by say doing a crappy job and discouraging others who might like what they do and want to be good at it. The labor market does not really work on a meritocratic basis (at least not for the Omanis) and in most of the cases, if you have the nerves you can hold onto a position for quite some time without really excelling at it, to say the least. As a result you would be better trying to choose something that you feel some vocational call for.  Assisting youngsters in a vocational job selection is something would do a lot of good in this country. A combination of high school programs and more conscious hiring practice would certainly yield results in the medium to long term.

The other extreme is having your hobby as your job and be lucky enough to a make a good living out of it. Where are you on the scale…?