Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

My notes on training and development progress in Oman

My notes on training and development in Oman

 

Case study #1 : SHELL Petroleum

Shell Professional Training Programme

Shell operates in more than 110 countries. It has vast experience and expertise in many areas, and also many training centres across the globe. As part of Shell’s contribution towards the development of Oman’s human capital, Shell invites many of its learning experts to conduct a number of training courses for Omanis who work in Government, Private and Non-Governmental Organisations, aiming to share its wide experience and global knowledge in many different areas.

The courses are normally delivered in English over a period of two or three days. They cover a wide range of topics and target different age groups, starting with new employees and ending with experienced professional employees. Based on stakeholders’ feedback, Shell introduced the “Dynamic Leadership Programme”, the first training course to be supported with Arabic, and continued offering Career Development for Women. 

Since kicking off this programme back in 2002, more than 80 sessions of Shell courses were conducted in Muscat, Sohar, Nizwa and Salalah, and were attended by more than 2000 participants. 

Below are the sort of courses we’ve been conducting:

• Finance for non-Finance Professionals 
• Negotiations Fundamentals 
• Time and Stress Management 
• Leadership Challenge 
• Career Development for Women 
• Presentation & Interpersonal Skills 
• Dynamic Leadership 
• Change Management 
• Project Management
• Public Relations & Media 
• Strategic Thinking & Planning
• Creative Thinking and Innovation Techniques

Shell Career Awareness Programme

With its strong commitment to sustainable development in Oman and as part of its Social
Investment programme, Shell in Oman has introduced this special free-of-charge training
workshop, aimed at reaching out to the youth of Oman who are on the threshold of
entering the job-market. The programme is managed and funded by Shell and facilitated
by Prosper Management Consultancy. It has targeted more than 2,000 final-year students
in more than 35 universities and colleges around Oman.

The highly interactive workshops have been developed in a way that will allow students to
enter a self-exploration stage, address the strength of each student and look at the areas
for development.

In response to a request from stakeholders, Shell supported a number of Social Investment initiatives that have been developed specifically to address the training

and development of women in our community.

Sidab Women Sewing Group

Shell has supported the Sidab Women Group for Sewing by providing a specific training and development programme to allow them to improve their handicrafts products, develop their management, marketing and sewing skills and enable them to get a sustainable income. The programme, which was carried out over one year, consisted of three main

phases:Phase One
Included renovating the existing building and revising and upgrading all health, safety,
and environment related issues. It also comprised buying all the required equipment to
create a better working environment for the ladies.

Phase Two
Aimed at enhancing the ladies’ skills to improve their products and to communicate with
customers by conducting a number of training and development programmes. These
programmes related to English, IT, communication and interpersonal skills, customer
services and marketing and handicrafts.

Phase Three
Aimed at helping the group to develop a marketing plan to promote their products in
the market. This phase included printing a leaflet that explained all the group’s products,
along with other marketing activities.

Over the past year, Shell, jointly with the group, were able to achieve a number of
milestones. The total number of ladies has increased from 15 in 2006 to 30 at present.
Equipment has increased to 35 different sewing machines, compared to only 4 in 2006.
Moreover, the group has managed to let 8 ladies work from their homes, and 8 special
machines have been bought for this purpose. The total number of products sold per week
has increased to almost 200.