As the project moves toward implementation, the need to prepare qualified Jordanian workers is growing more urgent. The required skills span engineering and technical professions, skilled trades, and the specialized roles needed to operate and maintain the desalination and conveyance system once it is built.
اضافة اعلان
Ministry of Labor spokesperson Mohammad Al-Zyoud said the project's management unit at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation is compiling a list of the professions it will need. That list will then go to the Ministry of Labor and the Vocational Training Corporation (VTC), which will coordinate on training.
Al-Zyoud added that the VTC already has the programs, institutes, workshops and trainers to prepare young people for the relevant trades. He said the ministry will work with the Ministry of Water and other partners to track how the required numbers and professions are identified, and argued that skills gained on the project would transfer to future work in both the public and private sectors.
Training tied to contracts
Ziad Obeidat, former director general of the VTC, described the project as a national opportunity that extends beyond water security into job creation and skills building, but only if employment and training are planned from the earliest stages.
Obeidat argued that the number of jobs matters less than their type, the skills they require, the share that Jordanians can fill, and whether they lead to lasting careers. He expects demand across engineering, surveying, occupational safety and health, accounting, auditing and a range of technical fields, along with administrative staff and skilled and unskilled labor during construction, followed by a separate set of specializations for operation.
Jordan has a solid pool of workers in many of these professions, Obeidat said, but lacks practical experience with the technology, scale and standards the project involves. He called for an early skills-gap assessment and urged the VTC to shift from offering its existing programs to training built around the project's actual needs. That process, he explained, should begin by identifying each job and its standards, then move through selection, intensive practical training, assessment and certification, and finally placement.
Obeidat stressed that training must be linked from the outset to employment contracts, through direct cooperation among the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the VTC, implementing agencies and contractors. Otherwise, he warned, the Kingdom risks graduating large numbers of trainees with no clear job to go to.
Making the jobs worth taking
Training alone will not be enough, Obeidat said. Young Jordanians will weigh project jobs against other options, so competitive wages, job security, workplace safety, social security and health insurance, reasonable hours, leave, overtime pay and opportunities for advancement will all shape whether they sign on.
The remote locations of the work sites add a further requirement. Obeidat said authorities must provide transport, housing and basic services on site, and described such conditions as a prerequisite for a national employment policy rather than an optional extra.
He identified the end of construction as one of the biggest challenges. The carrier will need a permanent workforce for pumping stations, electrical and mechanical systems, control and monitoring, preventive maintenance, laboratories, quality control, administration and accounting. Obeidat called for a defined pathway from training and certification through hands-on experience into operation and maintenance posts, so that construction-phase jobs serve as entry points to long-term careers.
He proposed that the existing coordination among stakeholders be formalized into a national skills and employment plan for the project. The plan, he said, should specify the professions required, their numbers, when they will be needed, local availability, skills gaps, the training programs and their locations, and the responsible bodies. It should also track performance indicators, including the share of Jordanians employed at each stage and in each profession, the proportion of trainees who move into jobs, retention rates, and the share who transition from construction to operational roles.
Obeidat concluded that the project's contribution to reducing youth unemployment will depend not on the raw number of jobs but on whether those jobs reach Jordanians, whether Jordanians are trained for them, and whether the experience gained during construction turns into sustainable employment.
Union calls for localization quotas
Azzam Smadi, president of the Independent Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions, said the project's scope, which covers desalination, conveyance, pumping, energy, operation and maintenance, demands an early national plan to supply and train Jordanian workers. He argued that Jordanian participation should not stop at construction and support roles but extend to technical, engineering, operational and management positions.
Smadi said Jordan already has a broad base of engineers, technicians and skilled workers who can meet much of the demand, but that desalination technology, control and automation systems, pumping stations and specialized maintenance will require dedicated training. He called for a detailed national study of the project's workforce needs across all phases, and for a training program run jointly by the Ministries of Labor and Water and Irrigation, the VTC, universities, the Jordan Engineers Association and the implementing companies.
Training should begin well before operations start, Smadi said, with an emphasis on hands-on learning and technology transfer. He urged the government to set clear employment quotas for Jordanians and a schedule for gradually replacing foreign expertise in positions that may initially depend on it.
Smadi added that contracts with the companies building and operating the carrier should include binding commitments to train Jordanians and transfer knowledge and technology, so that the project becomes a platform for localizing Jordan's water industry. The project's success, he said, will be measured not only by delivering water but by the decent jobs, national skills and domestic expertise it leaves behind.
Source: Al-Ghad. Reporting by Hiba Al-Issawi.
