DUBAI — As the United Arab Emirates gears up to become the first producer of nuclear power in the Arab Gulf region and Saudi Arabia starts exploratory drilling of shale and other unconventional gas reserves, one of the biggest challenges facing the energy-exporting Gulf states is finding enough trained staff members for these novel projects — and for their conventional oil and gas industries, too.

The problem is all the more acute because Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman have all set targets for raising employment levels among their citizens and limiting the number of expatriate and migrant workers, under plans that have gained urgency because of the Arab Spring.

The political upheaval sweeping the Arab world has pushed Gulf governments to offer more jobs and better benefits and salaries to their citizens, to head off discontent among a growing number of young people without work.

Unfortunately, however, the young mostly do not have the qualifications needed for work in the energy sector.