I have the same problem.Its better that I saw this topic here in the 1st place otherwise I may have open another "ask question"

as per my Qatar id card it mentions my profession as plumber.I went to al rayah driving school with one of my friend who knows the rayah manager pretty well,he asked me how about your profession as per id card.as im unable to read arabic, I gave my card to him and he said almost the same thing for me "your ID mentioned you as a laborer so you will not get automatic transmission but you can get manual" and he said however he will try to get me license which he doesn't mean it by the way.
so the thing is as soon as your ID tells your profession as laborer you cannot get automatic. you have to change your profession to something higher than that after getting approval from company.
companies doing like this to all ppl who comes to a higher position from sri lanka,india,nepal.so that they can pay small amount of money to visas/renewals and after all get the job done.desprate times :P