MUSCAT: Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with five firms for training and skill development of local employees of various small and medium scale industries (SMEs).
The MoUs were signed at a ceremony held on Sunday.
The companies which have entered into agreements with OCCI are Bahwan CyberTeck, International Academy for Training, Mohsin Haider Darwesh, Galfar and Khimjis groups. They will be involved in training and skill development of Omanis, said Abdul Adheem Abbas Al Bahrani, director general of OCCI.
Al Bahrani said these companies have offered seats to Omanis who will receive training and will avail skill development facilities at these institutions. “One of the companies has committed to training at least one hundred SME employees.
Some of them have not set any limit for the purpose. However, they have provided us the details of the kind of skills they will be developing,” he said.
Al Bahrani said that the companies which will shoulder the responsibility of developing local talents used by SMEs will continue to do so till the end of the four year tenure of the current chairman of the chamber of commerce.
Through such initiatives, the OCCI is trying to shoulder responsibilities in regards to the SMEs. The OCCI will select candidates for undergoing training and skill development programmes after completing the process of short-listing.
He said that ever since Said bin Saleh Al Kiyoumi was elected as the chairman of the OCCI, he has launched a series of programmes which include Kafa’at. Kafa’at was launched to empower SMEs and develop skills of their employees. The agreement, which was signed between the OCCI and these five companies, was part of this initiative.
In February, Said bin Saleh Al Kiyoumi had announced various initiatives which were aimed at empowering and improving SMEs. These initiatives were ‘OCCI Award for Excellence,’ ‘Oman Business Gate,’ ‘Join with us to escalate’, ‘Manafidh,’ ‘Muntaje,’ ‘Business Opportunities Forum’ and ‘Shop in Oman 2014’. Kafa’at is also one of these initiatives.
