WA Premier Geoff Gallop announced the Western Australian TAFE system had won the contract.

Dr Gallop said TAFE International WA had beaten a strong field of training institutions from Canada, Germany and other Australian States to win the four-year contract.

"Not only is this an international vote of confidence in our training system, it is an important addition to this Government's push to deliver a first-class training system," he said.

"This commitment is evident in the extra $158 million investment in education, training and science innovation programs in this year's Budget.

"As part of the contract with Qatar, TAFE WA will provide about 60 expert lecturers a year to the Qatar Petroleum Training Centre to deliver training and learning materials.

"Most of the lecturers will come from WA."

Dr Gallop said Qatar had extensive gas resources under development but it had only opened its education sector to foreign providers four years ago.

"With two-thirds of Qatar's population below the age of 25, they want to train their own young people in the skills needed to ensure their economic development, rather than import workers," he said.

"This is the same attitude we have, so we have invested more money into our young people through training, education and science.

"Although the Qatar contract covers training to be delivered overseas, there will also be opportunities for TAFE to recruit more students to further their studies in WA.

"In the past 12 months, several students from Qatar and Oman have studied engineering courses at our TAFE Colleges.

"The $50 million contract will include training in physics, English, maths, chemical engineering, oil refinery operations, safety and security issues.

"I congratulate everyone involved in bringing this contract to WA - it will be a big boost to our education export industry."