Progress Towards Omanization: Implications From A Psychological Contracting Perspective

Refereed paper Swailes, Stephen; Al Said, Loay; Al Fahdi, Saleh Abstract Replacement of foreign labour with local labour is central to national HRD strategies found in the Gulf States and elsewhere. This paper presents the findings of discussions with senior Omani government officials and private sector managers looking at progress towards localisation and at the further actions needed. The main findings are that the employability of locals remains a key supply side problem and employers preferences for expatriates remains a key demand side problem. Psychological contract theory is used to position a discussion of employability development. Key words: Oman, localization, psychological contract, private sector, employability. Introduction Localization policies - the replacement of foreign workers with skilled and qualified local labour - are a feature of economic development in the Gulf States and this paper reviews progress towards localization in the Sultanate of Oman. Omanization, along with diversification (away from oil revenues) and privatisation (to reduce the role of the State and to focus the State on strategic direction and policy) has been one of the three cornerstones of Omani economic policy since the launch of Vision 2020 in 1996 (EIU, 2009a, MNE, 2010). Localisation strategies in the region are inevitable given the context of rising population, increasing unemployment, improving general levels of health and expanded education systems. If high unemployment is to be avoided it is essential that qualified people leavings schools, colleges and universities are absorbed into the local labour force. The paper begins by summarising previous research into localization in the Gulf region before summarising economic development in Oman. Findings from discussions of progress towards localization with officials and managers are then presented. Barriers to Omanization are identified and implications for future progress are derived from interpretation of findings from a psychological contracting perspective. Localization Localization (nationalisation) strategies are now firmly embedded in Gulf Cooperation Council countries to tackle present and potential unemployment problems (Forstenlechner, 2010; Girgis, 2002; Harry, 2007). At an operational level they share a common approach of imposing quotas of local employees onto employers in different sectors and occupations. Specific literatures have emerged on Saudization (Al Dosary and Rahman, 2005; Al Shammari, 2009; Mahdi and Barrientos, 2003; Sadi and Al Buraey, 2009), Emiratization (Al Ali, 2008; Godwin, 2006; Rees, Mamman and Braik, 2007), Kuwaitization (Al Enezi, 2002; Salih, 2010) and Omanization (Al Hamadi, Budhwar and Shipton, 2007; Al Lamki, 1998, 2005). Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia have seen the most intensive efforts, ahead of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and the World Bank (2004) reports that only Oman has taken steps to control employment in the public sector which, given national income surpluses from oil revenues, can be expanded by the State to absorb qualified locals. This particular tactic has been seen in Kuwait (Al Enezi, 2002) and the Saudi government is accused of turning its public sector into a vast social welfare system by hiring locals for non-existent jobs to tackle unemployment problems (Al Dosary and Rahman, 2005). However, if left to market forces (and thus heavily influenced by employers) progress towards Saudization is likely to be much slower given employers preferences for expatriate labour and strong local preferences for public sector jobs (Al Shammari, 2009). Furthermore, attempts to push Saudization forcibly rather than through reasoning and persuasion has led to low motivation among government trained local employees (Sadi and Al Buraey, 2009, p.83).

Omanization Economic and social development have advanced rapidly in recent years. The total population grew to 2.9 million in 2008 with 31% expatriates. Of the 2.0 million Omanis in 2008, 35% were under 15 and 38% were aged 16-29 demonstrating the youthful composition of the population and emphasising the imperative to provide jobs and to develop the employability of young Omanis. Although foreign labour has been essential to build national infrastructure the need to integrate qualified and skilled local labour into the economy has been long recognised (Sultanate of Oman, 1991). In the 1990s the government supported this policy by compensating employers for up to 18 months for employing and training locals and employment law introduced in 1991 protected Omanis working in the private sector. That same year a Vocational Training Authority was created and linked to the implementation of National Vocational Qualifications. Although abolished in 1997 and its remit was transferred to a new Ministry for Social Affairs, Labour and Vocational Training (Wilkins, 2002). The Ministry of Manpower was created in 2001 to support Omans social and economic objectives. Key functions include; policy making, framing laws and regulations, licensing expatriate, providing training, matching market needs and maintaining a labour market information system. Schooling in Oman begins at age six and, although there is some drop-out, most young people persist with their education and sit examinations for a General Education Diploma at 18. Sixty one thousand students took the Diploma in 2008 of whom 83.6% passed. Higher education is served by one state university (Sultan Qaboos) and 24 private universities and colleges. In addition there are colleges of applied science, banking, health studies and five vocational training centres. The numbers of students at these institutions is around 100,000 (see Appendix I. Assuming courses are on average of two or three years duration then the annual output of graduates from higher education is around 40,000 (see also EIU 2009b). However, despite having one of the fastest growing post-secondary education systems in the world the number of college and university graduates each year already exceeds the numbers of jobs available through economic expansion and natural labour turnover (Al Barwani, Chapman and Ameen, 2009). The World Bank (2004) reported that governments in the Middle East have acute challenges in creating and providing jobs for those who have benefitted from intermediate and higher education for whom the threat of unemployment is high. Conversely, unemployment is lower among those people without higher levels of education and who are not qualified to work in the public sector although the wage levels and conditions that they experience may be poor. Given the youthful nature of the Omani population, this situation is tightening and pointing-up the importance of local employment strategies. A confounding factor is concern about declining future oil revenues and the ability of the State to fund further and higher education as generously as it has done (Chapman, Al Barwani and Ameen, 2009). Omanization targets are published by the Ministry of Manpower and different targets are set for a wide range of occupations and occupational levels (see Appendix 2). Targets are adjusted, sometimes downwards, to fit the prevailing economic situation and outlook. Since early 1998, organizations that meet their Omanzation targets have been awarded a Green Card which gives them preferential treatment from the Ministry. Such treatment involves, for example, faster approval of applications for expatriate labour permits. The government also operates a Sanad programme aimed at supporting Omanis aged 18-40 who want to start their own business with loans of up to 5,000 OR. The two most notable examples of successful Omanizaton are found in banking and in the national airline. Al Lamki (2005) reported 90% Omanization in the banking sector and this was linked to the fact that financial institutions have existed for longer, the nature of much of the work suits female employment and there have been clear strategies by banks and the airline to employ local labour. The two sectors are also important parts of the national infrastructure and it seems likely that they were prioritised for reasons of national security and symbolism. Omanization levels for 2008 in the Civil Service and Public Corporations reached 85.5%. Although technology-oriented public departments such as aviation and health continue to rely on expatriates to fill

some posts the public sector is approaching saturation in terms of local employment and it is unlikely to get any bigger. Overall levels of local employment in 2008 in the main private sectors were; banking 91%, oil and gas 75%, insurance 58% and hotels 43% (Ministry of Economy, 2009). Of the 147,000 Omanis working in the private sector, 76% earned less than 200 OR per month with an overall average of 217 OR per month (about $560). Existence on such low wages often necessitates close family structures with family groups living under one roof to spread accommodation costs and to ease the burden of care for children and the elderly. The picture thus painted is one where expatriates vastly outnumber locals in the private sector and of relatively low wages for locals. Given the economic and social background to localization and the relatively low levels of research into localisation strategies in individual countries (Rees et al, 2007), further research into the progress of Omanization is needed. The main questions guiding this research were 1) how do senior government officials and private sector managers see progress towards Omanization, and 2) what further actions are needed to assist Omanization processes? Method The focal informants for this study were drawn from the government departments responsible for Omanization policy and leading private sector employers. High level access was negotiated and an interview protocol was developed to cover issues surrounding Omanization with participants. Interviews were conducted with representatives from the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour and Vocational Training, Ministry of National Economy and the Ministry of the Civil Service. All interviewees were with senior officials with responsibility for vocational training and human resource development up to and including the rank of Minister. In total, eleven interviews were conducted in the four ministries. To obtain private sector perspectives, interviews were conducted with managers responsible for human resource development in 14 private sector organizations chosen for their active involvement in the Omanization process. Sectors included banking and finance, petrochemicals, air transport, retailing, automotive supplies, consumer electronics, engineering, shipping, and hotel management. The first step was to negotiate access to interview a Minister to clarify official policy on Omanization before conducting the main body of the research with other officials and the private sector. The final interview was with a Director General in another Ministry and was used to explore issues raised in the main phase of the research. Although generic lists of barriers to localization are available (eg, Bhanugopan and Fish, 2007), the approach taken here was to let the factors specific to Oman emerge from the data rather than impose an analytical framework at the outset (Miles and Huberman, 1984). Transcripts were produced immediately after each interview and analytical notes were produced as the research progressed. Provisional coding was continually revised as new material was generated and by the 24th interview no further revisions were emerging from the data. At this point interviews with managers stopped and a final interview with a Director General was arranged to review findings. Interviews took place on the basis that they remain confidential to protect identities. Research of this kind in the Gulf region remains sensitive as it is socially undesirable to appear to be critical of government or its representatives. This is particularly important for government employees and, in respect of this convention, direct quotations from government officials are not shown here nor do we imply any criticism of government policy or organizations in this paper. Rather, our guiding philosophy is to report research into a strategically important area as a contribution to assisting national policy and the development of people. Progress towards Omanization Progress towards Omanization is discussed below and is structured around the four main themes to emerge from the data; public sector attractiveness, scepticism, remuneration and employability.

Public sector attractiveness The high level of Omanization found in the public sector is attributed to the general preference of Omanis to seek jobs in administrative or managerial positions and in government (see Al Lamki, 1998). Shorter working hours, longer vacations and perceptions that public management carries sought after status continue to add to its attraction. There is a strong social norm around commitment to family more so than an organization hence shorter hours and longer vacations develop a strong psychological attraction. It was also suggested that there is a general dislike of jobs involving manual labour but this, we suggest, stems from its historical association with low pay. Where pay levels are higher, for example in oil and gas production, local labour is not so averse to taking manual work. Scepticism among private sector managers As noted above, two sectors in particular employ high proportions of locals; the national airline Oman Air and banking (Al Lamki, 2005). The banking sector in the Gulf has existed for longer than other sectors and is relatively well placed to recruit talented Omanis. Banking and the national airline also have a strategic importance to the country that calls for high levels of localisation for reasons of security and independence. However, some negative attitudes towards Omanization were found as illustrated by this comment: The officials behind Omanization are not fully aware of the actual conditions of trade, economy, company management systems and operation of private sector enterprises. Their interference into the nuances of work may cause a lot of harm for the whole enterprise, especially if it operates internationally. It creates some chaos which these officials might not appreciate. They tend to think that Omanization is simply the forcing of Omani personnel into a company or just the employment of Omani staff into a vacant position, though they know that there are no qualified Omani individuals to occupy that post. In other words, in the process of Omanization they simply care for numbers only. (Private sector manager) This sentiment suggests that some employers see the drive behind Omanization as a numbers game first and skill development second. At this stage of its development, Omanization is still focussing on filling junior positions much more than senior positions. This can be explained in terms of risk avoidance as businesses cannot put themselves at risk by putting inexperience into positions where it can do harm. To perpetuate the situation, managers in senior positions can use their position power to withhold information and opportunities from juniors to protect their positions or to favour other expatriates. The reference to interfering with the nuances of work connects to complexity theory explanations of change which see different organizations as presenting different levels of receptiveness to it (Houchin and MacLean, 2005). If organizations are seen as an outcome of interactions among sets of complex processes then the level of success of localization in an organization is influenced by practices that are already present and operating. Remuneration There was a high level of agreement that remuneration levels in the private sector presented difficulties for localization particularly in small and medium sized enterprises where salaries can be much lower than in public or large private organizations. Aggravating this is the situation under which, even at low wages, SMEs can easily hire expatriates as the local wage levels may be higher than found in the expatriates home countries (in Omans case typically India, Bangladesh and Pakistan). Given that wages for most outside the oil and gas sectors are generally low there is a tendency for employees to switch employers to gain small wage increases. However, this effect is not solely confined to low paid workers, The Company's policy is always based on supporting the citizen based on his/her present situation. For example, some employees are paid less than OR200 per month. This minimum wage class has served the country well, and they keep working for the company despite the attraction from other companies. As for high- or middle-ranked

key positions, the policy did not serve the country well. Some of these workers, for example, work for about 3 months or so and then move to another employer. This seriously affects the flow of work in the company. Hence, I wish that a strong policy is put in place to stop these violations. (Private sector manager). Faced with this situation, some large private companies have reshaped their pay practices to respond better to the pressures of Omanization. One of the banks reported that high turnover of Omanis with low tenure was tackled through a redesigned reward system. The extract points to a problem for employers brought about by the ease with which new starters can move from one employer to another. In a context of localization there is a balance to be considered reflecting the investments that employers put into employing local labour and economically viable tenure. Restricting ease of movement, however, seems an unlikely development in localization policy. Employability The Ministry of Manpower provides vocational training to work-ready people aged 18 or over. Companies then hire locals through under-training contracts with the Ministry and supplement government training programmes with organization-specific training as illustrated by the general manager of a refinery, The Company set up well-established internal training procedures to train Omani personnel on work sites directly. This has brought the best profit performance and also has motivated us to Omanize a lot of positions. Intensive training programmes were cited as a critical factor behind Omanization and the national airline, Oman Air, was put forward as an exemplar. However, despite the training infrastructure that exists, almost all private sector interviewees considered that young Omanis in particular lacked the skills and experience to operate successfully in private sector cultures and had a strong dislike of the longer hours that are often expected. One Operations Manager said, Local workers are frequently absent, particularly during summer time, they dont pay enough attention to the company's welfare, they neglect labour law, and they miss work while they are in charge of critical task assignments. The suggestion that locals neglect labour law is interpreted as meaning that they do not pay sufficient attention to their obligations to their employer under Omani employment law such as attendance, reliability and delivering satisfactory performance. The comment about ignorance of company welfare (goodwill) and labour law points to a general mismatch between the expectations of young Omanis and employers expectations in terms of the employees input to a job. Employers felt that young locals did not appreciate the importance of high service standards, reliability and respect to others in building and maintaining corporate reputation and success. Standards could be compromised by an uncaring attitude. The general explanation put forward for this state of affairs connected to employees sensitivity to low wages and long hours. Basically, it was seen as a social exchange situation in which the loyalty and commitment levels of employees adjust (fall) to match their perceptions of under-reward consistent with equity theory predictions (Adams, 1963). The situation is aggravated by a lack of appreciation by locals of contractual obligations in relation to performance at work. Unsatisfactory performance was also raised in the context of employment law which was seen as adding a layer of protection to locals. Revision and amendments to labour law make it easy for the private sector to hire Omanis but very difficult to fire them when they fail to turn in expected performance or are persistently found to be neglecting their assigned duties. But it is much easier for the company to terminate expatriate workers on similar grounds. Omani employment law, however, makes no distinction between locals and expatriates yet this comment draws attention to a level of reluctance among private sector employers to tackle poor performance by locals. One reason for holding on to poor performing locals is that firing them does not help the organization to achieve its localisation targets particularly in small organizations and may raise concerns

in government departments about the actions of the company. Secondly, the employer may struggle to recruit another local who will perform any better to take their place. Responses to this have included a tightening of recruitment and selection practices in relation to hiring Omanis followed by better training. Greater attention is given to communication and computing skills and the ability and willingness to work in teams. Successful new hires then undergo internal training and development programmes. A consumer electronics company had responded as follows: Theoretical and practical training are provided to Omani staff over a one and a half year period. And we are attempting to Omanize all positions in the Company by actively collaborating with the Ministry of Manpower with regard to the training and education programmes to achieve high Omanization percentages. A luxury goods retailer pointed to the need to connect the expertise held by expatriates with the development needs of local labour, The Company believes in internal training of young Omanis and the Company has many highly-qualified expatriate personnel. Hence, our Omani youth can be trained while doing their work under the supervision and guidance of the expatriates expertise. This process is not without problems, however, as noted by a petrochemicals manager, Many expatriate workers have the tendency to bring in workers from their own country and also are not willing to transfer their expertise to their Omani staff through training or mentoring. This comment identifies some known problems of cross-border knowledge transfer and the idea of stickiness (Szulanski, 1996). Stickiness refers to barriers to transferring knowledge which include the social and relational contexts that exist between expatriates and host country nationals (Riusala and Smale 2007). While this cross-national problem should diminish as Omanization increases, there remains a longer term, supply-side issue concerning the alignment of vocational and higher education providers with employers skills needs. There was, however, no appetite among participants for criticising the governments training and education infrastructure. Most participants (19) felt that it was inevitably a gradual and slow process to create training and development programmes that matched employers skills needs. One human resource manager in the banking sector remarked, With more time and with the spread of more qualified Omanis through the Ministrys training and education programmes there must be a lot of training to be given first, second, the acquisition of experience by these qualified Omanis, and then Omanization comes last. This comment gives a mature perspective to localization that it is far more than numbers in posts and that true Omanization will occur only when the skills and attitudes of locals match labour market needs and when locals can take senior posts and develop others by transfer of the their skills, experience and leadership. However, for the present, there was a high level of agreement among both public and private sector participants that much more needs to be done to develop a different work ethic in young Omanis. Their caution about the working conditions typically found in private organizations was seen to manifest in low motivation which compromised their prospects for advancement. The same attitude was found in Al Lamkis (1998) survey of Omani graduates where the public sectors status as the traditional employer of Omanis was a factor in explaining cautious attitudes to private sector jobs and entrepreneurship. Discussion Preparing young people for a labour market and the interactions between employers and education systems are long standing social challenges. When the population of 2.9 million contains 0.9 million expatriates it is plain to see that Omanization has ample scope to make greater inroads than already

achieved. Oman has a sound education system and through its oil revenues should be able to fund expansion of the system as needed. While additional skills are vital, our findings suggest that the catalyst for localization in Oman is attitudinal change that will create a better fit between private employees and the expectations of young Omanis. Seen in this way, localization strategies can draw on psychological contract theory for theoretical insight. Psychological contract theory is relevant because it captures and explains an employees unique and distinctive beliefs about the mutual obligations existing between them and their employer (Cullinane and Dundon, 2006; Rousseau and Tijoriwala, 1998). These obligations classically describe the individual employees understanding of contributions in terms of effort, loyalty and attitudes and his/her ideas of how the organization should respond to them in terms of pay, promotion and security. The organization, however, also has a legitimate perspective in the employer-employee relationship (Guest, 2004). Views of young Omanis towards work appear rooted in what has been called a relational type of contract which reflected working life for many in the West until changes to competitive conditions gathered pace in 1980s. Under a relational contract, employees give loyalty and reliable performance in return for security and steady, even if slow, promotion (Rousseau and Parks, 1992). This model became less viable as public and private organisations struggled to cope with spending cuts and increasing global competition and turned to new tactics such as downsizing, contracting-out and greater use of temporary workers to give tighter control over labour costs and labour flexibility. As relational contracts diminished, transactional contracts emerged to fill their place (Hiltrop, 1995). These see mutual obligations in terms of a set of renewable transactions (such as economic rewards given for a project delivered on time) but with reduced if any expectation on both sides that work is secure in the long term. The different types of contract represent a shift from expectations of a paternalistic employer with obligations to provide continuing employment to a situation where employees have a much higher obligation to enhance and demonstrate their continuing employability in the labour market. The challenge for localization policy makers, however, is to understand how psychological contracts are formed because they are in pole position to influence contract formation. Key questions are, how do contracts form and what actions by the State and by employers contribute to shaping them? One of the challenges of localization that arises can be seen as engineering the social situations that are perpetuating the attitudinal states that exist. Psychological contracts begin to be formed in the preemployment stages (Rousseau, 2001). They develop over time as expectations of mutual obligations emerge from experience as well as observation and may in fact be continuously created and renegotiated through processes of socialisation, feedback seeking and role creation and development (Rousseau and Parks, 1993 p.29). Hence, the actions and words of teachers, interactions with employers during training and during selection processes all contribute to setting expectations in future employees. The first few months of employment are also instrumental in shaping an employees views of mutual obligations and performance expectations. Once formed, psychological contracts are easily broken but they are far less easily restored to accommodate both employee and employer expectations. Contract formation in an individual can be seen as a goal-oriented process (Shore and Tetrick, 1994) such that individuals interpret and give meaning to external events (words and actions) that impinge on their personal goals. This suggests that localization strategists need to be targeting the processes that are shaping the career goals of their youth. Information about the working environment released by government agencies and employers should be evaluated for its likely impact on the type of contract it will contribute to developing. There are precedents for attempting to change the ways people think about work at societal level (see Poole and Mansfield, 1993; Shackleton, 1998). Successive Thatcher governments, for instance, sought to move the UK workforce away from what it saw as heavily unionised and adversarial employee relations towards a more entrepreneurial and individual culture. Following the May elections in 2010 and in light of the UKs national debt situation, the UK government is again insisting that public employees in particular must reshape their expectations in terms of future pay rises, pension entitlements and retirement. These narratives employed by government will play a part in reshaping attitudes to public employment among current and future employees.

Key aspects of the contract formation process in Oman relate to anxiety about general conditions, in particular wage levels, working hours and job (in)security. Two of these factors, wages and hours, are tangible whereas insecurity is something that people feel and believe to exist (Guest, 2000, p.141) and their feelings may not match the actual likelihood of job loss or of securing another job if one is lost. Beliefs about insecurity can be managed and this must now become a challenge for those in government and vocational and higher education who are managing localization. A second strand to changing the conditions for localization comes from strategies that are aimed at developing employability (Clarke and Patrickson, 2008; Mason, Williams and Cranmer, 2009); that education systems should develop the requisite knowledge, skills and attributes and that employees continue to develop across their working lives. Employability, or attractiveness in the labour market, is a powerful antidote to insecurity. Furthermore, while it is very much about knowledge, skills and attributes, employability is also influenced by employer brand (Moroko and Uncles, 2008). People who can put several years experience with a top employer on their CV see their employability enhanced by association with that employer. Issues arise therefore relating to the employer branding strategies used by Omani organizations that relate to projecting employer of choice attributes. Raising employability, while reassuring the employee, poses risks to employers because, by definition, they have more marketable employees. It therefore falls to employers to create human resource management architectures (Lepak and Snell, 2002) that help to retain their most employable people strategies that have implications for the design of reward strategies. The emphasis lies with total reward (Kaplan, 2005) which is the sum of the financial elements (salary, pensions, insurances) plus the psychological value to the individual of non-financial elements (learning, the work itself, the employer brand). Changing the attitudes of young Omanis, however, requires sound evidence about working life in the private sector. There is a need to develop a more detailed, evidence-based understanding of the labour market and such a survey should include both employees and employers views of the present and future scenarios such as wage levels and job security. A comprehensive and broad survey of working life and conditions would provide evidence to feed into intermediate and higher education policy and to shape the design of learning and teaching strategies. Case studies would also be valuable in this context. Whatever, the outcomes of the surveys, rosy or otherwise, they will identify policy signals to follow. The main limitation of this paper is the modest sample size obtained but we feel this is offset by the high levels of seniority of the government officials and managers interviewed. Indeed, the seniority of the participants is a distinctive feature of this paper. Furthermore, the broad range of sectors included supports the generalisability of the main findings in an Omani context. Conclusions The paper reports on current progress towards Omanization. Localisation policies are proceeding steadily as labour markets undergo gradual adjustment. Successful localisation has required an active collaborative participation between government and private organizations and we can identify two broad but related conclusions. On the supply side, there is still a mismatch between the supply of skills from the education system and the skills needed by employers which needs to be tackled. On the basis that it is easier to develop technical ability in employees who show good attitudinal fit with organizational cultures and management styles (ie, where good person-organization fit exists) than it is to leverage good technical ability into mismatched fit situations, then education systems in Oman need to put more emphasis on acculturation in relation to the demands and expectations of the contemporary private sector workplace. The quality of teaching will need to change and pressure to do this will come from employers and we anticipate from the elected Consultative Councils (Majlis Ashshura) that advise government but also from students in higher education who will see the private sector as their most likely destination, short of leaving Oman to work elsewhere. More emphasis needs to be placed on attitudinal employability developing different appreciations of the on the ground reality of working life in modern Oman.

On the demand side there is, in effect, unequal competition in the labour market as many private employers still favour expatriates because of their assumed higher work ethic and commitment to the job and to the organization. Expatriate labour continues to be vital to support stable and competitive businesses. This situation is compounded by organizational cultures, particularly in small and medium sized enterprises, that do not encourage local labour as much and which could be more socially responsible in terms of the working conditions offered. If these two issues can be addressed then a gradual easing of tensions in the localization process should occur. In the long run, tackling employability through psychological contracting approaches will impact upon the suitability of locals for middle and senior management positions and this should catalyze the process. Our suggestions call for greater attention to the realm of young Omanis and to their concerns about their readiness for working life. Pursuing a better understanding of this aspect of localization must surely be worthwhile. Appendix I. Students by higher educational institution in Oman, 2008/09 Institution Sultan Qaboos University Private universities and colleges Special Education Schools Colleges of Applied Science Technical Colleges Vocational Training Centres Banking and Finance College Institutes of Health Studies Shariah College Students studying abroad Total Source: Statistical Yearbook, Issue 37, November 2009. Appendix 2. Examples of Omanization targets by sector, 2010 Sector Information technology Occupation or establishment type Senior management Sales and marketing Technical support Telecoms Engineers Skilled labour Travel and tourism Aviation Tourist restaurants Consulting services Engineers Accounting Administrative posts Private schools Academic posts Non-academic posts Private universities and colleges Academic posts Non-academic Private training centres Management and finance Technicians and assistant trainers Source: Ministry of Manpower, September 2009. Target (%) 9 100 15 54 80 90 90 25 60 90 15 58 16 74 90 35 Number 1 24 3 6 7 5 1 16 1 64 Students 15,000 33,520 1,150 8,000 21,000 3,000 1,500 2,290 910 14,000 100,370

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