Future Job Prospects For Engineers May Be Difficult - Output Far Exceeds Market Needs

Kuwait Engineers Society's head, Eng. Faisal Al-Atl, has sounded an alarm bell saying Kuwait may find it hard to find jobs for engineers in future because the number of engineering graduates is 3,000 annually while the actual need for both the government and private labor market does not exceed 1,000, reports Al-Rai daily. He added, because there is no coordination between education of all kinds and the need of the labor market, and since the annual turnout of engineers far outpaces the need of the labor market, there is a need for specialized engineers in the oil sector, such as machinery and drilling engineers, but no one studies these disciplines, while the focus is on petroleum engineering in general, so there is an imbalance in the labor market and its needs in which the graduate will not find an opportunity to work in the future with his certificate. The KES has prepared a list of 13,000 expatriate engineers who have not passed professional tests conducted by the society in cooperation with Kuwait University, and the society has not found a clear answer.

The KES has submitted a proposal and asked the Public Authority for Manpower to amend Kuwaitization law in the private sector so that it is at least 30 percent for Kuwaitis. The number of public benefit associations was approximately 25, and they have been operating since the 1960s, according to their goals and plans to develop and serve their members and society at large. However, after this date, the number exceeded 100 associations with the same goals and technical specializations.

There appears to be some political agenda behind some of these associations, which may weaken civil society's ability to fight corruption, disseminate its ideas, and interfere with its activities, and public benefit associations, especially professional associations, have been serving the country and its citizens since their inception with declared goals and activities. According to published figures, Kuwaiti engineers working in the private sector do not exceed 2,000, unlike oil engineers and government employees.

In his view, KES supports the employment of Kuwaiti engineers and Kuwaitization of the engineering sector, and in all of our meetings with officials, he stressed the importance of opening up new work opportunities and ending the queue system for Kuwaiti engineers in government, and we have rehabilitated hundreds of engineers in order to replace them in the private sector. As part of this initiative, we presented a proposal under the title ‘Engineers are future leaders’ to replace Kuwaiti engineers working in the private sector, which has received a lukewarm response by assigning the association the responsibility of accrediting non-Kuwaiti engineers,” he noted.

We have members and colleagues who belong to the bedoun category and they enjoy all the services the society provides, but they do not have the right to vote in the elections for the society's board of directors. Moreover, he said that anyone who submits an application and fulfills the conditions will receive membership. Al-Atl confirmed that the Society of Engineers is the oldest public benefit society in Kuwait, as it was established in 1962, at the beginning of the urban and economic renaissance and shortly after Kuwait’s independence, and its objectives include contributing to the industrial and urban renaissance in the country, preserving the rights and legitimate professional interests of engineers and organizing the rules for practicing the profession and raising their standards.

It also encourages the conduct of engineering research and the development of Arab engineering specifications in partnership with the concerned institutions and bodies in order to consolidate ties and document scientific and technical cooperation between Kuwaiti engineers and their colleagues in Arab and foreign countries. Attempting to resolve disputes between engineers or between them and their clients in connection with engineering work, and encouraging engineering vocational training in Kuwait.

 

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