Purna Chandra Bhattarai, Joint-Secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, told myrepublica.com that the Qatari Labor Minister, Dr Sultan Bin Hassan Bin Al-Dhapit Al-Dosari, has assured that a skills training center will be opened in Nepal with the involvement of Qatar´s private sector. [break]
A Nepali team led by Minister for Labor and Transport Management Mohammad Aftab Alam visited Qatar last week.
“Minister Al-Dosari has assured that a skills training center will be set up here with the involvement of private sector agencies so as to develop Nepali human resources in line with the demand at Qatari companies,” said Bhattarai, who was among the delegation members.
Officials said the total number of skilled and highly skilled workers being exported by Nepal to overseas countries account for less than 20 percent of the total number of outbound workers due to lack of skills training that will fit them for work abroad.
“We have to strike a balance between skilled and unskilled workers being sent to the overseas job market including Qatar and benefit from the growing demand in Qatar for skilled workers such as overseers and nurses as well as for security guards,” said Bhattarai.
Nepali manpower agencies said they are compelled to sent unskilled and semi-skilled workers despite increasing demands of skilled workers in Qatar.
“Insufficient training and lack of experience have deprived Nepali workers of reasonable remuneration in Qatar,” said Pragyan Neupane, proprietor of Nap International, an agency sending workers to Qatar. Over 300,000 Nepalis are estimated to be working in Qatar -- the third largest destination country for Nepali workers.
He said that Nepali workers, who mainly work in the construction sector in Qatar, are under-performing and thereby getting paid lower than other foreign counterparts as their skills either mismatch the nature of work they are assigned or they have limited training.
“There should be wider accessibility and quality training for overseas job aspirants to ensure better earning for them at foreign work destinations,” said Neupane. Most of the workers leaving for construction work in Qatar are laborers and a limited number are masons, scaffolder and carpenters.
The Nepal government had recently decided to fix a minimum salary for workers headed for Qatar, on the recommendation of the Nepali embassy in Qatar and in response to inflation and the rising cost of living within and outside the country.
As per the new decision, manpower agencies have to fix minimum wages of Qatari Riyal 800 per month for unskilled workers, 1,000 Riyal for semi-skilled, 1,300- 1,900 Riyal for skilled and 5,500 Riyal for highly skilled workers.
The government has also defined unskilled, skilled, semi-skilled and highly skilled workers. According to sources, youths working as laborers, cleaners, helpers, sweepers and watchmen have been defined as unskilled, whereas those who have received training in their respective jobs have been defined as semi-skilled.
Those working as overseers and waiters have been defined as skilled, while chartered accountants, doctors and engineers are defined as highly skilled.
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