KUWAIT: Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Public Authority for Applied Education & Training (PAAET) next week to hold practical and technical tests for skilled workers in Kuwait which will be made mandatory for issuing a work permit. Informed sources said that these tests will not only include new workers who will be recruited but will cover everyone whose work permit expires as it is required that the worker who has completed their work permit conducts tests before obtaining a renewal. Otherwise, it will be considered a violation and the link will be made electronic so that the Residency Affairs at the Ministry of Interior can cancel the residence of those who evaded the test.

These tests are part of a goal for the implementation of the professional system project for smart “recruitment, which is part of the development plan projects,” they added. It will include the launch of these tests in gradual stages regarding the professions subject to the test or not according to the criteria and conditions to be determined by the memorandum between the Manpower and Applied Education Authority, especially that these tests will work to improve the level of technical manpower working in Kuwait in order to develop the labor market.

The Manpower Authority stated that the selection of the contracting sector as the first professions that will be subject to tests and the issuance of work permits, considering that this sector is one of the very important sectors that are related to the needs of the Kuwaiti family. “Therefore it must be protected from fraud and poor implementation in building vouchers, especially with the increase in the distributions of houses and residential vouchers to eligible Kuwaitis,” they added.

The sources expected that these tests can avoid a lot of unnecessary recruitment of labor who are not actually specialized in their fields of work and they can weed out a lot of marginal labor from the market. The tests can also prevent the issuance of work permits without the worker’s eligibility for the profession.