Internship Report

 

An internship at

Scientific Institute for Training and Administrative Development (SITAD)

in Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman

 

Study program: International Business – Intercultural Studies Semester: 5 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Michael Ruf

Authored by Marlene Till

Paulinenstraße 14/1

74076 Heilbronn

Email: mtill@stud.hs-heilbronn.de

Matriculation number: 184560

Date: 16/09/2015

Contents

1. The Company................................................................................................................................1

2. Work Assignments........................................................................................................................5

3. Learning Achievements ................................................................................................................7

4. Applied University Course Contents ............................................................................................9

5. Recommendations.......................................................................................................................10

6. Appendix.....................................................................................................................................12  

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1. The Company

The “Scientific Institute for Training and Administrative Development (SITAD)” started in 1991

as “The Scientific Institute for English and Computer (SIEC)”. Since then, this institute has been

committed to providing quality manpower development training, in order to equip Oman’s

workforce for excellence in service. The institute is located in the city of Nizwa, the beautiful

heart of the Sultanate of Oman. It currently reaches the residents of Nizwa and the Interior (Al-

Dakhaliya). SITAD staff members believe that the key to progress in any country is manpower

development and they take their role in this industry very seriously.

SITAD’s office building

Famous view of the Nizwa Fort and Mosque

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For the regulation and control of migrant workers, Sultan Qaboos – just as it was done in other

Gulf States – introduced the “kafala system” in Oman, which basically is a system used to

monitor migrant workers. The system requires all expatriates to have an in-country sponsor,

usually their employer (kafeel), who is responsible for their visa and legal status.1

For this reason SITAD is officially run by Mr. Abdullah Sulaiman Abdullah Al Nabhani, the

Omani sponsor of the institute. He takes care of the work visa and is in charge of other official

paperwork. Besides him there are one local secretary, one employee from Bangladesh, a couple

from Kenya, and three teachers from the United States of America. During my time at SITAD

we also had three short-term teachers from the United States of America and Australia as well

as two other staff members from Great Britain. Due to visa issues and private reasons the team

is continually changing with people leaving and new people coming. It is difficult to illustrate

fixed figures concerning the size and personnel of the institute. We can say that during the year

(Spring, Fall, and Winter Terms) there are usually between 5 to 10 long-term staff members

while during the Summer Term there have been an additional of between 18 to 28 short-term

staff members during the past three years. All teachers are native speakers, usually from the US,

Great Britain, or Australia, while office work is done by Omanis and people with other

nationalities.

The following chart illustrates SITAD’s organizational order in more detail:

SITAD’s organizational chart

1 MIGRANT FORUM IN ASIA SECRETARIAT. Reform of the Kafala (Sponsorship) System. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/dyn/migpractice/docs/132/PB2.pdf (status as of 16/09/2015)

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With usually less than 10 staff members and a turnover of between 77.000 to 85.000 OMR

(approx. 180.000 to 200.000 €) per year, SITAD can be counted as a micro-enterprise.

SITAD provides high-quality classes in English as well as courses for computer and

administration skills. Due to the standard Islamic week schedule, the institute is open from

Sunday to Thursday, with the weekend being on Friday and Saturday. Each term starts with one

week for registration, followed by a five to seven weeks class period. Students come to class

daily from Sunday to Wednesday with each class lasting 2.5 hours.

SITAD runs 3 training departments:

A - ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

SITAD’s English Language department has prided itself in the fact that it offers English

Language training through trainers who are native-speakers. Much effort is being taken to

ensure that the staff is professional as well as diligent in the delivery of the sessions. A

continuous assessment program by the participants ensures that the institute is always improving

what it does to ensure consumer satisfaction. Unlike some other service providers, the staff

members have updated the training materials and have been using one of the latest English

Language curriculums called the ‘New Cutting Edge Series’ (by Longman Publishers). This is

the same series used by the British Council in Muscat. Participants are given original colored

copies of textbooks and complimentary dictionary.

SITAD runs 15 course levels, from the Foundations Course up to the Advanced Level Course.

The standard courses run for 70 hours, Sunday to Wednesday. Besides the regular course levels,

the institute also offers specialized training sessions according to the unique needs of its clients

in e.g. Business English, Spoken English, or IELTS Preparation Courses.

B - COMPUTER DEPARTMENT

In this department, SITAD runs different levels of computer and IT training programs for

different levels of candidates with different levels of expertize. From those who want to start

their computer/ IT training as beginners to those who are advanced in computer and software/

maintenance, SITAD has different packages that suite all levels. Times for courses are flexible

and can be adjusted to suite the clients’ schedules.

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C - BUSINESS/ COMMERCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT

The business/ commercial studies department is designed to develop the secretarial, accounting,

managerial and administrative capabilities of any individual or corporation. Considering the role

of an efficient administrative set-up in the smooth running of any company, the institute

considers this department as a core instrument in building the profitability and productivity of

any corporation that desires excellence. Duration, time preferences and costs for courses vary

according to course hours and client preferences.

Upon completion of each course, students are issued an official certificate, stamped by the

Ministry of Manpower. This equips them for excellence at their work place and is likely to open

new opportunities for them in the future.

For more details I have attached an overview of all the courses offered at SITAD, a copy of the

standardized Placement Test, as well as a copy of one official certificate (see Appendix).

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2. Work Assignments

With my background in International Business – Intercultural Studies I joined the

administration department of SITAD. For my work assignments I was reporting to the head of

SITAD Admin, working closely with the local secretaries, the training supervisor and the

accountant. Some of my regular tasks included assisting the secretary in updating the SITAD

database for both regular and summer students, updating student payments in the system, filing

student records, filing incoming and copies of outgoing letters, and updating the class lists of

current students. Also, I was fully responsible for preparing and updating class attendance

sheets for all classes and preparing students’ certificates. I was given charge of keeping an up-

to-date filing system of all office documents. Whenever other assignments needed to be done, I

was given responsibility by the leadership team in order to support and assist SITAD in every

possible way.

As the yearly summer program represents SITAD’s main source of turnover, I was given

several specific work assignments in order to ensure everything was running smoothly. One of

my tasks was helping the long-term staff in summer school recruitment. This included recruiting

students both in the institute and on off-site centers. This year SITAD hosted a total of five

centers, including schools in Adam, Al-Hamra, Falaj Daris, Izki and the institute itself in Nizwa.

Recruitment of students started as early as May and continued until the second week of the

actual 5-weeks summer program held during Ramadan, June 14th – July 16th 2015. As part of

the registration students first had to take a placement test. This is a standardized test of the

English language that was created by SITAD long-term staff members and that consists of

grammar exercises, a writing task, and an oral interview. The student’s individual result helps us

to place them in a class level according to their language abilities. SITAD offers a total of 15

levels, predominantly composed for young adults and adults. The summer program though

focuses on children and teenagers between the ages of 6 to 18. This year we offered Pre-

Foundation and Foundation classes for the little ones (6-8 year olds) and levels 0 to 8 for the

older children (9-18 year olds). I was directly involved in student placement testing, both during

regular terms and especially during summer. For registration, students or in most cases their

parents had to pay a registration fee. Upon receiving the full payment, books were handed out. I

was in charge for both collecting and recording all these payments and entering them on the

system. Both for the student database and all payments, SITAD uses Microsoft Access that I

became quickly familiar with.

Another task during the summer program included hospitality and support for 28 short-term

teachers that SITAD hosted for the duration of 7 weeks. I was in charge of setting up six

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apartments, ordering and organizing the delivery of eight bunk beds, making countless beds, and

filling refrigerators with the basic necessities. Upon the arrival of those teachers I was involved

in a 3-day orientation they all had to go through and served as one of the main contacts,

especially for the ladies, for cultural issues such as covering, appropriate clothing, and behavior

in public. Once classes had started, I helped supporting the center leaders (represented by

SITAD long-term staff members) in their tasks of collecting final payments and re-organizing

classes due to last-minute registrations of new students. Also, I was in charge of regularly

updating attendance sheets and grade sheets for the teachers. This year a total of 463 students

were enrolled in the program, taught by 28 teachers in 5 centers.

I enjoyed the mixture of office work and the interaction with people from religious and cultural

backgrounds different than my own. This allowed me to both use my administration skills as

well as past experiences and knowledge in intercultural studies. I found the balance of getting

work tasks done on the computer and also getting to know so many people personally to be very

refreshing and rewarding.

Another indirect task that I was given by the circumstance of living in a different culture than

my own, was both adapting to the culture as well as the language to the best of my abilities.

Through the GPA (Growing Participator Approach) program I was provided a private Arabic

nurturer. Most of my days started by visiting her in her home and spending 1.5 hours of

language learning with her. GPA has a strong focus on understanding and speaking and aims at

learning a language just like children learn it. The first 25 hours were spent with her talking and

introducing a bunch of vocabulary while I was just listening, pointing at pictures, and acting out

various instructions. This was followed by 60 hours that additionally included speaking parts on

my side. During each session various exercises were recorded that I had to listen to several

times at home. I experienced GPA as a fun and effective way of learning a new language. With

my background in Arabic studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Heilbronn that had

been focused on developing reading and writing skills, it was great to increase my speaking and

comprehension abilities during my time in Oman.

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3. Learning Achievements

During my internship at SITAD I was able to learn various things. Something that stands out to

me is adjusting to a new culture, a culture so different than my own in many ways – where I

learned to eat on the floor with my right hand, wear a head scarf, and cover my body

completely. Temperatures constantly rising up to 40-50°C was challenging in the beginning but

so normal by the time I left. Getting to experience many holidays such as Ramadan, where it is

illegal to eat or drink in public because most are fasting from sun up to sun down, was such a

unique and special experience. During the following festivities, so called Eid al-Fitr, I

sometimes got to visit four families in a row.

This picture represents one of my favorite parts of living in Oman: visiting people. Visiting

close friends to talk to for hours. Visiting people for holidays. Visiting one friend which turns

into visiting all of their relatives. Visiting random strangers that are having lunch on the side of

the road or that I meet in the street. Sharing life with so many different people. To laugh and to

cry with them. To share the good and the bad. To be spontaneous. To get to know and to love a

hospitality that I had not experienced in that way yet.

While Germany is considered to be a cold climate culture, Oman is seen as a hot climate

culture. Germans can usually be described as being task-oriented, looking to complete to-do

lists and errands as efficiently as possible. “Cold climate cultures (…) value direct

communication and words hold their inherent meaning. Individualism is more highly prized,

and with this is a desire for privacy and a need for 'alone time'. Hospitality in cold climate

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cultures tends to be approached as a more rigid and special occasion that requires planning, and

there is the assumption that guests will pay their own way when visiting from out of town. They

are also more time oriented, valuing punctuality as a sign of respect, and planning more

activities into a day to be productive.”2 Omanis on the other hand are more relationally oriented.

The relationship is more important than the task. I noticed that they prefer indirect

communication styles to avoid hurting feelings through conflict. Hospitality is a big thing and

something that I got to appreciate so much during my months in Oman. You can drop into daily

life of a friend and it is even expected in many circumstances like the birth of a baby, the death

of a dear family member, or various holiday festivities such as Ramadan and Eid. In both work

and private life, time is much more flexible compared to a cold climate culture.3 Living in Oman

taught me to be flexible and spontaneous, to place high value on relationships, and to be aware

of shame and honor as the main traits of this culture. This affected not only my private life but

also my work place. Working at SITAD sometimes meant to place more importance on

relationships than on tasks. Sincerely getting to know both my work colleagues and our students

represented a major part of my internship.

Working in a multi-cultural team also required exercising humility and patience. I was able to

get to experience an international work environment and improve my team player skills. I

learned to conform to handling work tasks differently, both from local work colleagues and

other staff members from different countries.

Furthermore I acquired new practical skills such as becoming familiar with Microsoft Access,

typing with an Arabic keyboard, mastering the structure and pronunciation of Arabic names,

answering the phone in Arabic, and improving my knowledge of Microsoft Word and Microsoft

Excel.

2Lizzy. Hot and Cold Cultures (02/04/2013). Retrieved from http://tckness.blogspot.de/2013/04/hot-and-cold-cultures.html (status as of 16/09/2015) 3 Lizzy. Hot and Cold Cultures (02/04/2013). Retrieved from http://tckness.blogspot.de/2013/04/hot-and-cold-cultures.html (status as of 16/09/2015)

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4. Applied University Course Contents

Due to the international work setting, I was able to apply many contents of the courses

Behavioural Science, Intercultural Business Communication, and Cultural Area Studies of the

Arab World. Indirectly I applied and was able to better understand the concept of proxemics,

introduced by E.T. Hall in The Hidden Dimension (1966), Hall’s concept of high-context and

low-context cultures, Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC), and Acculturation and

Intercultural Training. Knowledge I had gained from lectures on cultural area studies of the

Arab World was very helpful when I first came to Oman and I got to see many of those topics,

especially the religion of Islam, in real life.

Having studied three semesters of Modern Standard Arabic before going to Oman had given me

the ability to read and write in Arabic which was very useful both at work and in daily life. I

took over most tasks that included typing names in Arabic for official letters, documents, or

students’ certificates. Helping other expats with reading aloud various documents written in

Arabic was another fantastic way of applying and improving my reading skills. In daily life it

was rewarding to be able to read Arabic street and shop signs. In my personal opinion a

language cannot be learned in a classroom setting but has to be practiced and used in a daily life

and work setting. Nevertheless my background in university Arabic studies has definitely

benefited me in many ways and it was fun to build on those beginner level skills and deepen

them further.

I directly applied skills I had acquired in the course Management Skills during the second

semester. Especially different applications for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel were put

into practice almost daily.

Besides cultural, linguistically, and managerial aspects I was also able to use contents of the

courses Introduction to Business Administration, Organizational Behavior, and Human

Resource Management. I was directly faced with topics like work stress, personality types, and

office politics. Especially during summer my main focus was on recruitment of students to join

our 5 weeks program. Being given a lot of responsibility helped me to enlarge my knowledge

and understanding of Human Resource Management in an international context.

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5. Recommendations

Looking back I can honestly say that I have enjoyed working at SITAD to the full. The

international, multi-cultural work atmosphere was challenging at times but mostly so inspiring

and rewarding. My work was always highly valued and the atmosphere very welcoming and

joyful. Interactions between staff members were marked by respect and honor. I was assigned a

personal supervisor who was both very helpful in cultural issues and concerns that I had in the

beginning and also introduced me to the various work tasks that I was assigned. Her office was

always open to come in and ask questions. I felt truly supported and assured in everything I did.

SITAD provided both housing and a shared car for me. I shared my flat with one other lady and

during the summer program with four other young ladies. The location of the apartment was

very convenient as both my work place and the market were in walking distance. Still, having a

car in Oman is essential. It’s the only mean of transportation and unlike in Saudi Arabia women

are allowed to drive and enjoy more freedom. I shared a car for most of my time and that

worked out perfectly. SITAD also paid for my monthly visa renewals, each 20 OMR (approx.

50 €).

As I can see myself working full-time in the Arab world for a longer time period, this internship

taught me so much about life and work in this part of the world. Life is more spontaneous, work

is flexible, relationships are regarded as very important, and hospitality is highly valued. I feel

privileged that I had been given the opportunity for this so unique experience. Through building

friendships with locals I was able to really immerse in the Omani culture and not stop where

Tourists usually stop. The souq, an open-air or commercial quarter in Middle Eastern and North

African cities, was no longer a place to visit and take pictures but a place where I got my daily

fruits and vegetables, where I went to the post office to both receive mail and send letters back

home, where I went shopping for traditional house dresses4 and abayas5 and shaylas6, and where

shop owners not only recognized and knew me but also offered me coffee and sometimes even

granted discounts.

To students who have a high interest in the culture and language of the Arab Peninsula I can

highly recommend to complete an internship at SITAD. It is stretching and challenging, giving

you a unique opportunity to get to know the culture and language of an Arab country first-hand.

For this reason it requires flexibility, openness to a foreign and so different culture, and the

readiness to adapt in many ways. In the end it is very rewarding though and lessons learned will 4 Long-sleeved, colorful dress worn with a matching headscarf by Omani women inside the house 5 Black, robe-like dress worn by Omani women in public 6 Long, rectangular scarf popular in the Gulf region which is wrapped around the head and tucked or pinned in place at the shoulders

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be taken away from it that could not have been learned in this specific way anywhere else. Both

local and expat work colleagues are welcoming and respectful and as I already mentioned the

work atmosphere is very pleasant. As I have pointed out before, this internship gives one the

opportunity to directly and indirectly apply quite a lot of contents of the study program

International Business – Intercultural Studies and provides an atmosphere which makes it easy

to use and deepen ones skills and knowledge. I would definitely choose this internship again if I

had the opportunity.

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6. Appendix

SITAD’S COURSE OFFERS

A- ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

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B- COMPUTER DEPARTMENT

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C- BUSINESS/ COMMERCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT

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PLACEMENT TEST

Cover Page

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Page 2

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Page 5

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Page 6

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CERTIFICATE

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