On 15 June 2022, the Chief Migration Officer, Immigration and Citizenship Authority, released a public notice pertaining to the screening and assessing renewal of work permit applications.
As per conditions set out on work permits under Section 15 of the Employment of Non-citizens (Amendment) Act 2021, all non-citizens (expatriates) must engage with training their national counterparts (i.e., mentoring, coaching).
This legislation is in place to ensure that organisations are complying with the commitment to the upskilling of Papua New Guinea’s local workforce, through training and development.
Consequently, from the date of the notice in June, employers of non-citizen workers applying for their renewal must include in it, a detailed training report. In this report, the company and non-citizen must identify the training provided, such as mentoring or coaching, to its national employees, the skills acquired, skills gap, dates of training, facilitators/institute providing the training and the list of nationals which have participated.
Expats to PNG have always traditionally been senior or leadership positions, and alongside reliance and cultural capability being key factors to be a successful expat in PNG, mentoring now, more than ever, is crucial. While, traditionally, mentoring or training requirements may not have been explicitly written in job descriptions, expats have always needed to be willing to be a mentor to help nationals fulfill their potential.
For the last few years, however, we’ve begun to see companies taking stock of this requirement, listing leadership requirements in key criteria in their job descriptions. However, as reported by the Chief Migration Officer, the last six months especially has seen a mismatch of organisations renewing permits without actually satisfying the criteria of learning and development of by expats of locals.
Peopleconnexion Training recently launched its refreshed Mentoring Matters program, currently underway in conjunction with PNG Business Coalition for Women. This program has facilitated the mentoring relationships between 15 mentors and 15 women professionals with the goal of preparing them for board positions.
Peopleconnexion Training developed this program to target the upskilling of emerging and young PNG professionals with senior leaders, expatriates included. With the ability to pair mentoring programs for expatriates with programs such as our Cultural Intelligence program, we can quickly and effectively equip expatriates with the tools and techniques to effectively lead, coach or mentor locals from other cultures and develop positive mentoring relationships for effective cross-cultural team development and productivity.
If you are needing to engage with a mentoring program for your expatriates and upcoming Work Permit requirements, get in touch with us today to talk about how we can embed effective training and development throughout your organisation.