The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) launched its second season of Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) seminars on Monday the 4th of February, 2008 at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel. Students from the College of Engineering at Dhofar University went to Muscat for this event since the university encourages its students to  participate actively in forging links with the local market. The topic under discussion was ‘Education, Training and Manufacturing: Going Global’. Over 180 people from manufacturing, business, education and government attended the seminar. Nurturing talent, creativity and building stronger dialogue between manufacturing and higher education were the key themes of the session. The objective behind the OMG series is to bring relevant stakeholders together and discuss issues of concern to Oman's manufacturing sector.

The students who attended the seminar agreed that it was very successful because the industrial sector greatly affects their future  careers, especially since they in engineering. Hussam Al Marhoon, a Mechanical Engineering student, said that it was very important to introduce industries and their future to university curricula until the subject becomes common in institutions of higher education in the Sultanate. Khalid Al Rawas, another student from Mechanical Engineering, said that the idea was adopted by the Omani manufacturers and that they are concentrating on finding a ways of communication between industry and education when it comes to preparing students to enter the industrial sector. He added that there was a national demand for these links and that they must be encouraged. As for the significance of the workshop, Khalid said that his attending the seminar gave him “a chance to get to know important aspects involving industrial training and how this field includes exclusive opportunities if students pay attention to how fast local industry is developing.”