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Good practice Imported

Makeen — Oman's National Digital and AI Competencies Initiative with a Bootcamp-to-Job Track

Oman · Muscat · See the Oman profile · See the Muscat profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 81% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Oman's ICT ministry runs a national digital and AI competencies initiative combining short courses, vendor certifications and a 16-week bootcamp with 8 weeks of on-the-job training. The ministry reports over 11,000 trainees and a 50% employment rate in the bootcamp track.

>11,000
Total trainees (2021-2026)
>27,000
Total registrations (2021-2026)
139
Programmes delivered
>2,425
Micro-credentials awarded
50%
Bootcamp-track employment rate (self-reported, undefined denominator)
2,790
Omanis supported into employment
100
First bootcamp cohort graduates (2025)
Makeen — Oman's National Digital and AI Competencies Initiative with a Bootcamp-to-Job Track

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT), Sultanate of Oman
Period
2021–ongoing
Keywords
digital skills, AI training, bootcamps, employability, micro-credentials, jobseekers

Context

Makeen, the National Initiative for Digital Competencies, is run by Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT) under the national Oman AI and Digital Future Programme 2024-2026, delivering digital and AI skills to graduates and jobseekers through five tracks including micro-credentials and vendor-certified qualifications with Huawei, Cisco and Microsoft.

Activities

The employability core is a 16-week technology bootcamp followed by 8 weeks of on-the-job training, delivered in Muscat, Suhar, Sur and Salalah, covering data science and AI, web, mobile, systems engineering and cybersecurity.

Results

MTCIT's five-year review (April 2026) reports more than 11,000 trainees against more than 27,000 registrations, 139 programmes across more than 30 technology fields, more than 2,425 micro-credentials awarded, a 50% employment rate in the technology bootcamp track, and 2,790 Omanis supported into employment. Bootcamp cohorts are small relative to the headline: the first edition trained 100 graduates, with the second edition targeting 200 across three cohorts in 2025.

Conclusions

The evidential caveats are significant: every figure is ministry-reported with no independent evaluation, tracer study or counterfactual; the 50% employment rate has no published definition (measurement point or denominator), and at least one secondary source quotes 60% instead; sector aggregates presented alongside the programme (45.5% ICT-sector Omanisation, 4,949 Omanis entering sector professions) carry no attribution analysis and must not be read as effects of Makeen.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
MTCIT programme staff, Vendor-certification partners (Huawei, Cisco, Microsoft), Bootcamp instructors and on-the-job training host employers across Muscat, Suhar, Sur and Salalah

Conditions for success

  • Bootcamp pairs 16 weeks of classroom training with 8 weeks of structured on-the-job placement rather than classroom training alone
  • Delivered across four cities rather than centralised in the capital

Common failure modes

  • No independent evaluation, tracer study or counterfactual for any of the ministry-reported figures
  • 50% employment-rate figure has no published definition and is inconsistent across sources (one quotes 60%)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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