Training in Oil & Gas Based

Industry (OGBI): Employees

Perspective

Dr. Hend Al Muftah

March 2005

Statement of the Problem

1. From Economic Perspective

• Economic diversification.

• Extensive use of non-national labour (Q 46% in2001, 38% OGBI in 2002).

2. From Industry Perspective

• Manufacturing industry characteristics

• Associated results

• OGBI places a major emphasis on training

Investigated Sector

Qatar Petroleum QP,

Qatar Petrochemical Company QAPCO,

Qatar Fertilizer Company QAFCO,

Qatar Fuel Additive Company QAFAC,

Qatar Chemical Company Q-Chem, and

Qatar Vinyl Company QVC

Main Questions

1. To what extent educational attainment of Q workers within the OGBI is adequate to their current job-tasks? To what extent Q workers need further training programs to develop their job-related skills? To what extent do the OGBI provide educational and training opportunities to Qatari workers?

Main Questions

2. To what extent do Q workers' educational attainments affect the effectiveness of their training programmes, related practices and their attitudes towards technical and production jobs and labour turnover?

Main Questions

3. To what extent do other practices such as promotion, performance appraisal schemes, and training difficulties influence the effectiveness of training of Q workers within the OGBI?

Respondent’s profileBackground info Frequency % Background info Frequency

%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--Gender Job position classificationMale 156 81 Administrative 62

32Female 37 19 Technician 127

66Other 4

2---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--- Age Working year

Less than 20 26 14 Less than 5 6868

21 – 30 99 51 5 – 10 1031 – 40 44 23 11 – 15 941 – 50 17 9 16 – 20 951 – 60 6 3 20 + 4

Educational levelSecondary 41Technical secondary 7Technical diploma 6University 46

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reason for joining the industry High wages 59 31 Education & training 57 30 New experience 54 28 Working environment 20 10

Question 1:

Significance of Education as a Pre-

requisite for Training

37.3%

41.5%

4.1%

14.0%

3.1%Very significant

Significant

Neutral

Not significant

Not-signif. at all

Significance of Education as a Pre-

requisite for Training

The HCT prediction that the general-skills level is significant in the development of specific skills, which are formed through training, does not apply to the current study findings.

It may be argued that within the industrial sector, a higher level of education is not necessary to absorb and acquire specific skills, but technical secondary may seem to be a better minimum level for acquiring such skills within any industry.

To what extent the current educational attainments

of Qatari workers in the OGBI is matching with

their current job-tasks?

36.8%

25.9%

37.3%

Highly suitbale

Suit able

Not sure

68% are satisfied with their current educational attainments in managing their current job's

tasks (insignificant statistical relationship between education/job suitability and respondents' educational attainment).

82% indicated their need for further training in order to enhance their job-skills.

Conclusion: though formal education may create basic skills that may be relevant to industry, such skills may only serve the needs of small-scale industries. For a higher level of industrialization as OGBI, both technical education and OJT are essential to meet the requirements for new skills needs.

within OGBI, training is of greater importance when compared to education

To what extent the current educational attainments of Qatari workers in the OGBI is matching with their current job-tasks?

1.3 To what extent they need further specific-training

programs in order to develop their skills required by their

current jobs?

82% indicated their need for further training program as follows: 41% technical PT, 34% non-technical PT,18% technical IT, 6% non-technical IT, and 1.6% are interested in the four types of training

Statistically, there was no association between the need for further training programmes and respondents' educational attainment.

It is concluded that:

Education in Qatar plays a significant role in generating and enhancing specific skills among Q.

Education is significant in providing workers with general-skills but not specific-ones, which in turn points to the significance of continuous training in developing workers' specific-skills and its great value in filling gaps between formal education and workplace skills.

4 To what extent do the OGBI provide

educational and training opportunities to Qatari

workers?

67% of Q participants indicated that their education was not upgraded (31% secondary, 29% university). 33% had upgrades their education (20% secondary).

Conclusion: training (short-term) remains a higher priority in comparison to education (long-term) since it is more effective in developing and enhancing workers' general and specific skills.

1.5 Education/Training Links significance in Forming

QHC

42% indicated the significance of education/training close linkages in forming their general & specific HC

Statistically, there was a difference in the significant level of education/training among senior and junior workers, with highest significant level among junior workers and lesser level of significance among senior staff.

Question 2:

To what extent do Q workers' educational attainments affect the

effectiveness of their training programmes, related practices and their

attitudes towards technical and production jobs and labour turnover?

2.1 Training Objectives and Achievement

83% strongly agreed with enhancing current job-related skills,

68% strongly agreed with obtaining new job-related skills,

66% strongly agreed with implementing new production/technology,

65% strongly agreed with increasing wages and promotion,

47% strongly agreed with developing general skills

Correlation test revealed a significant relationship between respondents' educational attainment and :

obtaining new job-related skills.

enhancing current job-related skills

increasing wages and promotion.

To what extent do Q workers' educational attainments affect the effectiveness of their training programmes, related practices and their attitudes towards technical and production jobs and labour turnover?

These findings:

1) confirm the HCT argument (importance of the level of accumulated knowledge through education to absorb new skills),

2) suggest that the higher the educational attainment of the worker, the higher the degree of achieving the training objective (e.g. U & Technical education), and

3) revealed that implementation of new production/technology is influenced by workers' training rather than his/her educational attainment.

Training Effectiveness

Majority indicated the effectiveness of training factors as related objectives and curriculum (85%), teaching staff (81%), length (70%), and facilities (68%), etc.

Majority indicated the effectiveness of training in developing their general-skills (94%), developing their know-how skills (94%), developing their specific-skills (89%), developing multi-task skill (83%), developing their abilities in solving job-related problems (68%) and in managing complex tasks (65%), and enhancing their career positions (57%).

Respondents' educational attainments do not affect training factors as related objectives and curriculum, length, teaching staff and facilities, teaching staff, etc.

There is a strong association between higher levels of educational attainment and effectiveness of training in enhancing and developing the various skills required within the industry.

However, it has been shown that workers with lower educational qualifications (specifically technical secondary) had higher returns, where training was very effective in increasing their ability to develop their general skills 100%, manage multi-tasks, 92%, develop their know-how skills, 92%, and to manage complex tasks, 77%

In turn, this suggests the significance of technical education in influencing employees skills formation process within industry.

Training Effectiveness

2.3 Agreement with Training Policy

strongly agree

agree

neither agree nor di

disagree

strongly disagree

Per

cent

50

40

30

20

10

0 Percent

21

42

10

17

10

2.4 Qatari Workers' Attitudes towards

On-Site Jobs

Very high

High

Neutral

Not high

Not high at all

Per

cent

300

200

100

0

Current educational

University

Technical diploma

Technical Secondary

Secondary

64

17

55

18

18

62

233830

19

78% had shown their interest in working on-site.

75% had confirmed their high motivation towards such jobs

the higher the level of education, the higher the motivation is (university holders 64%, technical school 62%, technical diploma holders 55%, and secondary school certificate holders 38%).

Qatari Workers' Attitudes towards On-Site Jobs

2.5 Qatari Workers’ Attitudes towards

Technical Jobs

89% showed their interest in becoming technical specialists (91% among university degree holders, 91% among technical secondary certificate holders, 86% among general secondary certificate holders, and 82% among technical diploma holders).

32% are looking to be specialists within the engineering field, 31% and 27% in the production and supervision fields respectively, 10% in other fields such as management, maintenance, services and security, i.e. fire fighters.

2.6 Acceptance and Search for other

Jobs

Majority of Q (63%, N= 121) are not intending to accept any offer even though similar benefits would be provided. Statistically, correlation test indicated a significant relationship between:

the acceptance of and search for another job and the employees’ companies (QP (53%), and QAFAC 52%).

the acceptance of & search for another job and respondents' job classification (the higher the job classification the lower the attitude towards accepting and searching for another job).

the acceptance of & search for another job and respondents' educational background (the lower the educational level, the higher degree of accepting & searching for another job).

Question 3

To what extent do promotion influence the effectiveness

of training of Q workers within the OGBI?

Monetary promotion

Position promotion

No promotion

Other

Percent

50403020100Percent

6

41

27

25

Completion of any training programme does not necessarily coincide with any promotion or reward although its proven positive effect on work motivation and organizational commitment.

To what extent do promotion influence theeffectiveness of training of Q workers within the

OGBI?

Performance Appraisal Scheme (PAS)

68% were evaluated 'less than 5 times' under this scheme (47% had achieved the 'meet expectations' level in comparison to 31% who had achieved 'above expectations').

In terms of educational attainment, the high performance level of respondents, 'above expectations and meet expectations', was achieved by Q employees who hold technical secondary (92%), technical diploma holders (91%), university degree holder (82%), and general secondary certificate holders (68%).

It may be suggested that there is a poor PAS-job balance or match (influence of cultural factors such as social relationships, nepotism, 'Wasta', and connections in the practices which firms use to evaluate national workers, workers are evaluated based on personal relationships more than the suitability of their performance, experience, and qualifications for the new promotion).

Conclusion

The existence of a close relationship between formal education and training in developing workforce skills, and the significance of education as a prerequisite to the effectiveness of training within the industry in forming workers' human capital, specific and job-related skills, as the human capital theory suggests.

There appear to be significant differences between sectors in the validity of such conclusion. Training within the industry, in comparison to other non-production sectors, remains of greater significance in forming both general and specific skills. This is evident in the fact that the majority of Q respondents had indicated the adequacy and match between their educational attainment and their current job tasks, and that the majority of respondents also indicated their continuous need for further training to enhance such skills, regardless of their educational attainments.

Conclusion Educational attainment and type of education had

influenced the respondents' achievement in their training programmes’ objectives as well as effectiveness in developing their skills, with closer association between such practice and higher educational attainment & technical education, which was also proved statistically.

The positive attitudes of Q workers towards on-site and technical positions with significant association with higher educational attainments. Similarly, it was found that an industry-quit decision among Q respondents was influenced by their educational attainments, besides other factors within the industry such as promotion and incentives, but with the opposite association with lower educational attainment.

Other related training practices seem to be less influenced by respondents' educational attainments, but appear directly affected by other independent variables and other social factors such as nepotism.

Policy Implications:

At the national level and for Q skills to be developed effectively there is a need for constant cooperation between educational institutions, especially technical institutions, and the industry to generate and develop workers' job-related skills and hence improve their performance. At the industry level, training should continue to be a major means of generating and developing workers' specific skills and to some extent their general skills.

Internal organizational factors that affect training effectiveness such as promotion and PAS need to be readjusted in accordance with workers' performance rather than job classification, which in turn is expected to enhance stability and the commitment of Qatari workers towards their jobs and hence firms.

Training in Oil & Bas Based Industry

(OGBI)

Thank You for your Attention!

Any questions ?