By Mohammad Shoeb
DOHA: Over 40 percent of young Qataris prefer to become entrepreneurs and run their own businesses as their ideal job rather than working for others, reveals the findings of a latest survey.
For the survey, conducted by Oxford Strategic Consulting, over 300 Qatari nationals aged under 30 were interviewed to know about their views and attitudes towards employment in Qatar.
The survey was nationally representative of males (54 percent) and females (46 percent), and all the respondents were based in Doha and they were aged between 16 and 29 years old.
About two-thirds of those who worked, full or part-time, worked in government or semi-government roles (68 percent) and the remaining 32 percent in either the private sector or family-owned businesses.
Similar views of entrepreneurism as an ideal job role were reflected in Saudi Arabia (37 percent) and Oman (34 percent), however only 11 percent of Emiratis surveyed viewed ‘running my own business’ as an ideal role.
The military served as the top job for Qataris, with 46 percent of respondents considering a military role to be their ideal job.
The report (Qatar Employment Report: Insights for 2016) made several recommendations on employment strategies for entrepreneurs and future private sector business leaders in Qatar, such as helping entrepreneurs making money for themselves, focusing on those entrepreneurs who are actually contributing to employment growth and developing natural business leaders for a vibrant private sector.
The majority (58 percent) of Qataris marked money as a top motivator, with helping the society (57 percent) serving as the next closest motivator.
Yet it is interesting that such a high percentage of Qataris consider entrepreneurship to be their ideal job role. Rather than simply having an increase in public and private sector wages.
The consulting firm also recommended that the government should provide additional, targeted support for budding Qatari entrepreneurs, including perhaps government employees themselves.
In a statement the HR consulting firm said that in order to maximise the investment in entrepreneurism, government should identify and focus on some six percent of high-potential entrepreneurs who actually contribute to employment growth, known as ‘Gazelles’, should be identified.
“Providing seed funding and early support for these high-potential Qatari entrepreneurs is much more cost-effective than employing the equivalent public sector employees for an entire career,” said the statement.
It said that government should also focus on developing natural business leaders for private sector roles.
A further 27 percent of Qatari respondents considered the government or public sector to be their least favoured industry. While there remains a high demand for public sector roles, these findings suggest a growing constituency moving away from the public sector.
These young Qataris should be groomed for private sector roles by receiving globally recognised professional qualifications, such as those from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
The Peninsula
