Qatar World Cup organisers offer Kenyan workers thousands of job opportunities

A recruitment agency has secured thousands of jobs in Qatar, which is hosting this year’s World Cup. The job opportunities, according to the director of Talent Quest Africa, David Njoroge, have been opened up by this big event expected to be attended by at least 1.5 million soccer fans from across the world.

“We have been awarded thousands of jobs to fill in readily available positions in the World Cup in Qatar,” Njoroge disclosed.

He said the opportunities they have been offered are diverse. Some of those to be recruited will go to the Gulf country to work as cleaners, drivers and in the maintenance sector during the tournament that kicks off on November 21.

Others will work in the hospitality industry where Talent Quest Africa has procured about 3,000 jobs.  Female applicants will be expected to work as air hostesses and others in the ticketing section in the country’s airport. A section of them will be working as cashiers. Front office jobs will also be offered for those who have trained as secretaries.

Their male counterparts, on the other hand, Njoroge explained, will be positioned in the same airports to handle luggage.

Qatar has eight new stadiums and, as the director of the manpower at the company said, some of the male workforce they are to recruit will be working within these high-end football pitches.

They will be working as salesmen at the stadiums, selling beverages like juices, water and ice creams. “Here we need hundreds of people,” said the agency boss who noted that there will be a huge number of fans coming to watch the tournament.

For long, Kenya has had good diplomatic relations with Qatar and Njoroge said they have made use of these close ties to help jobless youths. It is these close ties that saw Kenya picked, among two other African countries, to provide the labour force during the World Cup tournament that will end in December. The others are Uganda and Ghana.   

“Kenyans are liked because they are valuable, easy to adapt, easy to learn and easy to work with,” Njoroge said.

Recruitment, which ends in June has already started, he announced, as he urged those interested to visit their offices, which are spread across the country.

Apart from Nairobi, which is the headquarters, the recruitment agency has branches in Mombasa, Kitale, Eldoret and Kakamega. They are also due to open up a fifth branch in Nakuru.

Applicants for the jobs are only required to have a certificate of good conduct, a passport, latest photo and a detailed CV (curriculum vitae). The applicants, Njoroge however clarified, should be in the age bracket of 18 to 40 years.

Once recruitment is over, employment for the successful candidates will commence in this same month of June when all the applicants will take a flight.

Qatar and other Gulf states have become some of the leading labour destination countries for Kenyan migrant workers.

Only two weeks ago, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry President, Richard Ngatia led a team of recruitment agencies under the Kenya Association of Private Employment Agencies (KAPEA), which is their umbrella organization where they secured 100,000 jobs for Kenyan youths in Saudi Arabia.

Njoroge who is also KAPEA’s deputy chairman said some of the jobs they secured are in the professional class. Kenyans mainly go to the Gulf to work as domestic workers.

“Largely the jobs that were secured this time are in industries, construction and even in the hospitality industry,” he said. They also managed to get opportunities for veterinarians and accountants.

Kenyan women who have trained as nurses are also in the list of young people to work in Saudi where the team that Ngatia led was accompanied by officials from the Kenyan Embassy in Riyadh.

Talent Quest Africa, Njoroge revealed, is looking beyond the Gulf and other Middle East countries in the quest for more jobs for Kenyans.

He appealed to those who pass interviews to ensure they observe labour laws once they take up their new responsibilities in Qatar.

While appealing to youths to take advantage of the available opportunities he said: “Going abroad will offer you a good source of livelihood.”

A big number of migrant workers Talent Quest Africa has recruited to work abroad, Njoroge said have established businesses after completing their contracts.