Higher levels of native employee retention are crucial to ensuring Qatar's oil and gas industry retains a competitive edge, recruitment and development experts in the country have argued.

At a recent forum held in the Emirate and organised by a local recruitment website, delegates were told that customised training and development programmes within all sectors are essential for optimising local participation levels.

However, at present, a lack of job satisfaction and intra-industry training and development opportunities are putting this in jeopardy, with last month's YouGovSiraj Consumer Confidence Index revealing that just 23 per cent of those questioned are satisfied with their current career prospects, while 43 per cent are largely ambivalent.

The forum noted: "The supply of well-educated and well-trained Qatari nationals is widely acknowledged to be insufficient to meet the demand, which is contributing to certain types of job vacancies not being filled, while the preferences of the national workforce in terms of hours and working practices is often not being met in the types of vacancies available in the private sector."

It was also concluded that more focus needs to be put on training and developing students and new graduates, including by giving them access to established professionals and retirees from the oil and gas industry to serve as mentors.