DOHA: A senior GCC official has called for setting up specialist centres in the region to train local youth to enable them to take up private jobs to fight yawning unemployment.
GCC universities do not adequately cater to local job markets and so are unable to churn out graduates skilled enough to compete and take up private employment.
The director-general of the Executive Office of the Council of Labour Ministers of GCC countries said there must be specialist training centres to develop local human resource for the private sector.
“This is the only way we can fight rising unemployment in the region,” said Aqueel Al Jassem, in remarks to Kuwait News Agency, regional news website ‘Arqam’ reported.
“There is a severe shortage of GCC citizens in private jobs in their own countries,” said Al Aqueel.
“This is because our education system is not linked to the job markets.”
The population has been rising and the public sectors in the GCC states are unable to generate enough jobs to accommodate the unemployed, he said.
What is needed then is a string of training institutes and centres in the region that would prepare the youth to be skilled enough and compete for private jobs, said the official.
He said that the GCC governments must work with the private sector and chambers of commerce in their countries to build such specialist training centres to train their youth.
The Peninsula
