An assessment of on-job training programmes in Kuwait

Like most of the states in the Gulf region, Kuwait suffers from an acute shortage of skilled and semi-skilled Kuwaiti manpower in almost all sectors of the economy. In 1990, the labour force was 2,120,302 of which 1,552,225 were non-Kuwaitis (73%), and only 568,007 (27%) were Kuwaitis (Ministry of Planning, 1995). The country depends very heavily on expatriates. The Gulf crisis in 1990 created an unexpected situation in which the country's infrastructure was damaged by the ravages of the Iraqi occupation. This presented a great challenge for Kuwaiti decision makers in implementing effective and appropriate action plans for rebuilding the country.In Kuwait, two main public On-the-Job Training Centres (Kuwait University, KU and the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, PAAE&T) were looked upon as centres for training Kuwaitis with the required skills. In this paper, some of the empirical results and observations are presented, which describe the views of suppliers (KU and PAAE&T) and recipients (eight main ministries) regarding the various aspects of on-the-job training programmes. The paper argues that for effective and efficient utilisation of on-the-job training programmes, both parties (suppliers and recipients) have to recognise the value of such programmes. The paper concludes that unless decision-makers improve and develop the present situation of on-the-job training programmes, the country will continue to rely heavily on expatriates for years ahead.