Omani graduates walk a tight employment rope

The rope Omani graduates are walking on is tightening up and is about to snap but is it really the pandemic to be blamed for their employment woes?

What is evident is that the global economy has been severely affected with the devastation of the coronavirus. But the global economy has been in a slowdown mode before the virus surfaced in 2019.

The teetering economy will continue to be on the short leash for a few more years.

But right here in Oman, graduates who are used to government handouts, that include free scholarships, medicare and subsidies, also expect the government to create jobs. They think it is their birth right to automatically get jobs when they graduate.

This is the reason why they are still hanging precariously on the tight rope. What they need to realise is that no government in the world can guarantee employment to its citizens. The sooner they learn to put their education to good use, the faster they will learn to safely negotiate that tight rope and reach the other side.

The need to rely on their own resources. They also need to look deeper into the economy so they can find out what is available to them. One thing for sure, the pandemic may have closed many doors, but on closer look, the same pandemic has opened some doors of opportunities.

For example, many companies cannot afford anymore to offer contracts to well established suppliers they normally trade with.

That opens up opportunities for graduates to fill the cost gap using the skills they learned in  the universities.

With a little confidence, they can easily offer these services at a much cheaper rate because they do not have overheads. An IT graduate can design a computer network for a fraction of price big IT businesses normally charge.

A graduate graphics designer can design advertisements for half the price of the going rate. These are the doors that are wide open in the pandemic period when big companies, need to survive by cutting down costs.

The resources that graduates have are endless. All they have to do is look deep within themselves and find out what they are good at instead of sitting at home moaning about the high unemployment rate the world is going through.

But hopefully coronavirus will not last forever and they will get the jobs they crave for to build the economy. Let us hope it will be as soon as 2022 when everyone has received their second vaccination to boost employment confidence.

The Ministry of Manpower is already working hard to raise opportunities in partnership with the private sector. In conclusion, we can look forward as the government has already promised over 30,000 jobs by the end of this year.