Research Paper on Employability and Career Planning

Introduction

This thoughtful commentary provides a vivid demonstration of the current marketplace for the graduate employment opportunities including the graduate training programs. Broadly, it aims to improve an understanding of the Qatar's economy, market place for graduate employment, graduate labour market, available jobs and salaries for graduates, its competitiveness, the salary, and importance of finance to the Oil and Gas Sector in Qatar. Besides, the commentary focus on the planned journey of the author from education to employment. Moreover, the commentary will include an assessment of suitability for the author's target position using a variety of feedback gained during the seminar activities and directed study, in addition to the Identification of author's strengths and weaknesses, related to the chosen position. Undeniably, higher education lead to different career choices and can lead one to finding secrets hidden in the job markets in terms of the experiences and skills required by the employers

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Economy in Qatar

The economy of Qatar economy is one of the richest economies in the world based on the nation's GDP per capita. Currently, the nation is ranked between the fifth and seventh on the global ranking, according to the data compiled by the World Bank and the United Nations. The Oil and Natural gas constitutes the nation's cornerstones and account for more than 70 per cent of the total revenue earned by the government. In 2009 for example, the Oil and gas sector accounted for about 46.2 percent of the GDP for the first time, thereby overtaking the non-oil and gas sector. Currently, the proven oil reserves of about 33 billion barrels including the condensates should ensure a continued output at the current level for the next 9 decades. This report is according to the European Commission. The oil and gas have therefore made greater contributions to the Qatari economy especially in terms of employment creation for the skilled graduates and other people. Most economically active citizens in Qatar therefore work in both the private and public companies. While majority of people work and live in the nation's capital, Doha, the new developments in the oil and gas sector have assisted to usher the emergence of the employment hubs, such as Dukhan and the Ras Laffan. The continued diversification of the nation's economy has contributed to the emergence of the new job opportunities across all the sectors (Pegram, Falcone, & Kolios, 2018). In reality, the companies and government agencies welcome the progressive hiring practices. This is based on the fact that majority of people around the world look after Qatar for employment.

Market place in Qatar for Graduate Employment

As a progressive nation, Qatar has recognized the significance of investing in human capital with an objective of having a robust developed economy, as well as to facilitate the transfer of technology. In this way, an educated workforce is critical in the creation, sharing, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge in an appropriate manner. Enhancement of the education quality at every education level from the childhood to the adult training is a definite prerequisite for the transformation of Qatar into a knowledge-based economy. To support the nation's fast economic growth and the rising presence on the world stage, it is imperative that young Qataris are motivated and empowered to participate and provide crucial roles in all areas of economic and social development through appropriate guidance in opportunity identification for proper engagement. Studies have shown that the context of the graduate labour market has undergone a tremendous change in recent years, with many nations attempting to increase their participation in higher education. While this is evident, there have been huge concerns about the employability of the Qatari graduates especially in the wake of the influx of multi-national companies in Qatar. Various reports have highlighted that more often, the university graduates in Qatar are not adequately prepared to accept the challenges of being in labour force because they lack appropriate information about demanding standards being adopted in public sector employment as well as many career opportunities in the private sector.

Graduate Labour Market in Qatar

An analysis of the current situation of the educational system shows that Qatar is still faced by tremendous challenges that affect both the supply and the demand of the education and training, as well as its direct connection to the labour market (Kakoothparambil & Menon, 2016). A close look at the system reveals that various models of employability have undoubtedly contributed to the development of the specific qualities that prospective employees need to possess to secure employment soon after their studies. Majority of these studies have put more emphasis on the graduates' interpersonal qualities that they otherwise lack (Pegram, Falcone, & Kolios, 2018). In this way, therefore, the qualities of the capabilities that individuals from a developing nation such as Qatar possess would be different from that of their counterparts in the developed nations. A significant challenge that influences the employability of the Qatari nationals is the underachievement in various subjects such as math, science, and the English Language at all levels (Kakoothparambil & Menon, 2016). The weaknesses in the educational administration that includes the preparation and development of teachers, poor alignment between the national curriculum and the labour market demand have resulted in limited opportunities for the Qataris (General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2008).

According to Labor Force Survey (2018), more than half of the total labour force is operating in craft and related as well as the elementary occupations in 2016. Similarly, about 60 percent of the labour force lack the relevant skills to perform various work. Nearly a half of the non-Qatari labour force are further categorised into this group. As for the nation's labour force, about 56 percent are highly skilled regarding high technical, and administrative posts. The non-Qataris working on these jobs does not exceed 16 per cent (Labor Force Survey 2018). As for the skill of the labor force who work in the private sector, it is crucial to note that nearly half of the non-Qatari labour force is limited skill, where most of the Qatari labor force in the private sector possesses high skills.

Top Oil and Gas Companies that Provide training and Employable skills to graduates

Although Qatar is a small nation that is not much populated, it is succeeded to achieve tremendous greatness within a short period of time (Pegram, Falcone, & Kolios, 2018). The presence of huge oil reserves has tuned it from an ordinary nation to the one of the most powerful and richest nations across the world. Various oil and gas companies have further helped create numerous employment opportunities for the graduates. In addition, these companies have helped provide graduates with the training program and employable skills. Some of these companies include the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the Qatar Gas and the North Oil Company.

On a broader note, the Qatar Gas is ranked the largest producer of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the entire world (Laskar, 2017). Having founded in 1984, the company is headquartered in Doha, Qatar. It generates and supplies throughout different nations across the world. Other than such provision, the company has accreditation from IWCF for various courses such as the Well Control, Well Intervention, as well as a range of Oil and Gas Maritime courses.

The Occidental Petroleum Corporation also offers various educational training and programs tailored towards the exploration of oil and gas. These include the production processes in well, production process in reservoir, well design philosophy, the physics of artificial lifting, well-pressure analysis, and integrated well/reservoir performance analysis. Similarly, the North Oil Company offers the employment and training for employable skills for graduates in areas of Well Control and Well Intervention (Laskar, 2017).

Available Jobs and Salary for Graduate

The salaries placement or the graduate jobs in Qatar vary tremendously depending on the company and the sector where an individual graduate secures the placement or the job. The average monthly wage for the graduate level worker in Qatar amounts to nearly 11 thousand QR. However, it reaches this figure for the males but does not exceed 9 thousand for the females as the gender equality index registers the 88.2 (Kakoothparambil & Menon, 2016).

There is no specific salary for the graduates in Qatar however as some may secure employment in well-paying firms. At the level of occupations, the highest average monthly wages are observed in the senior officials within the organizations and managers with an average of 44 thousand QR and this is followed by the specialists who earn an average of 28QR (Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, 2018). The lowest wages are noted in the elementary occupations who earn about 4 thousand QR. The graduates who get jobs dealing with economic activities such as public administration and defense get earn around 27 thousand QR. However, the lowest salaries are registered among people who perform the households' activities with roughly 3000 (Osmani et al. 2015). The highest salaries are however recorded in all the levels occupied by senior government officials and defense officers.

Effects of Blockade on the Job Market

The blockade of Qatar is one of the major issues discussed among the Qatari. It refers to the diplomatic rifts between the gulf nations and Qatari government. Reports indicate that the blockade against Qatar has had disproportionate economic impact on the foreign workers. However, through the increased self-sustainability efforts has helped provide new employment opportunities. Fundamentally, the majority of the approaches adopted by nations such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE were tremendously broad and made no distinction between the government of Qatar and its citizens. This situation led to the massive financial losses on the Qatari nationals.

One of the most noticeable impacts affected the people employed in the manufacturing sector. This impact offered great opportunities for the Qatari nationals and prevented the foreign nationals from working in Qatari. According to Weerakkody et al. (2015), majority of these foreign nationals from Nepal, Filipinos and Saudi Arabia. While it is evident that Qatari nationals benefitted largely from this kind of blockade, the Qatar suffered from the loss of the skilled workers. The nation depend on the foreign workers for its infrastructural development. The migrant workers who mainly originate from south or the Southeast Asia constitute to about 80 percent of the Qatar's workforce (Osmani et al. 2015).

Oil and Gas and How Finance is important to It

Oil and Gas constitute to the backbone of the nation's economy. In the recent past, Qatar has exerted tremendous efforts aimed at diversifying its sources to alleviate the nation's dependence on the natural resources such as the crude oil which constitute to about the 850 thousand barrels per day. These quantities are produced the North Field which holds Gas reserves of about (380 trillion cube foot) as well as the associated gas. As such, the State of Qatar has created favorable conditions for the employment of qualified individuals (General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2008).

In the year 2017 and 2018, the oil and gas sector advertised numerous jobs for nearly a hundred thousand qualified individuals. These roles include the finance manager, financial man...