This document discusses a study on employee perspectives on training in Qatar's oil and gas based industries. It investigates the views of Qatari workers at six major companies on the significance of education for training, the match between their education and jobs, needs for further training, and training opportunities provided. Key findings include that while formal education provides basic skills, continuous training is more important for developing specific skills needed in these industries. Most workers felt their education matched their jobs and needed further training to enhance skills. Educational attainment did affect some training outcomes but not factors like training objectives or facilities.

1. Training in Oil & Gas Based
Industry (OGBI): Employees
Perspective
Dr. Hend Al Muftah
March 2005

2. Statement of the Problem
1. From Economic Perspective
• Economic diversification.
• Extensive use of non-national labour (Q 46% in
2001, 38% OGBI in 2002).
2. From Industry Perspective
• Manufacturing industry characteristics
• Associated results
• OGBI places a major emphasis on training

3. 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

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. Respondent’s profile
Background info Frequency % Background info Frequency
%
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--
Gender Job position classification
Male 156 81 Administrative 62
32
Female 37 19 Technician 127
66
Other 4
2
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 Age Working year
Less than 20 26 14 Less than 5 68
68
21 – 30 99 51 5 – 10 10
31 – 40 44 23 11 – 15 9
41 – 50 17 9 16 – 20 9
51 – 60 6 3 20 + 4
Educational level
Secondary 41
Technical secondary 7
Technical diploma 6
University 46
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--
 Reason for joining the industry
 High wages 59 31
 Education & training 57 30
 New experience 54 28
 Working environment 20 10

8. Question 1:
Significance of Education as a Pre-
requisite for Training
Not-s ignif. at all
V ery s ignificant
3.1%
37.3%
Not signific ant
14.0%
Neutral
4.1%
Signific ant
41.5%

9. 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.

10. To what extent the current educational attainments
of Qatari workers in the OGBI is matching with
their current job-tasks?
Highly suit bale Not sure
36.8% 37.3%
Suit able
25.9%

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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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?
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.

17. 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.

18. 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%).

19. Training Effectiveness
 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.

20. 2.3 Agreement with Training Policy
50
40 42
30
20
21
17
10
10 10
Percent
0 Percent
st rongly disagree neit her agree nor di st rongly agree
disagree agree

21. 2.4 Qatari Workers' Attitudes towards
On-Site Jobs
300
200
64
55
Curren t e ducatio na l
100
62 Univ ersit y
17
18 Technical diploma
23
Percent
18 Technical Secondary
30 38
0 19 Secondary
Not high at all Neutral Very high
Not high High

22. Qatari Workers' Attitudes towards On-Site Jobs
 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%).

23. 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.

24. 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).

25. Question 3
To what extent do promotion influence the effectiveness
of training of Q workers within the OGBI?
Monetary promoti on 25
Positi on promotion 27
No prom otion 41
Other 6
Perce nt
0 10 20 30 40 50
Percent

26. To what extent do promotion influence the
effectiveness of training of Q workers within the
OGBI?
 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.

27. 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).

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. Training in Oil & Bas Based Industry
(OGBI)
 Thank You for your Attention!
 Any questions ?