Universities can help develop skills for jobs abroad

Migrants' remittances have the potential for enhancing Bangladesh's march towards the status of a middle-income country. And the flow of remittance income is increasing. Should Bangladesh suffer from complacency for this achievement? Who are sending more remittances? The simple answer is 'unskilled migrant workers', e.g., day labourers, construction workers, sales assistants, housemaids, agriculture workers, cleaners etc. The average income of an unskilled Bangladeshi worker is very low and it is a bitter truth. On the other hand, income of a skilled worker, e.g., doctor, university teacher, engineer, IT specialist, manager, etc. is much higher - by at least 15-20 times - than the income of an unskilled worker. That's why experts opine, Bangladesh's remittance earnings could have been much higher had the country turned a huge number of workers into skilled ones and sent them to the Middle East with jobs. The country can upgrade the scenario through involvement of Bangladesh's universities in developing skilled manpower. But how?
Our youngsters now belong to the global village and some are eager to develop careers overseas. But they don't know how to find jobs in competitive overseas  job markets, how to apply for jobs, how to write CVs and cover letters while applying for international jobs. Most of the people in our country think that one has to go to the recruiting agencies to get jobs in the Middle East. It may be true for the unskilled workers. But  one doesn't need any recruiting agency to get teaching, engineering, medical,  IT and managerial  jobs, which are considered as highly skilled ones and overseas employers directly recruit people for these sectors. It is possible to get highly skilled jobs overseas without spending a single penny. Unfortunately, most of the people are ignorant of this. Who will tell our tertiary level students about the process?
Universities can transmit this to our students. Each university should have a career development centre which will help students enter their professional life. The career development centres can organise workshops and programmes with seasoned counsellors helping students hunt overseas jobs, write CV and cover letter as per requirements of overseas employers.  
The process of job visa application is sometimes cumbersome which may require technical support to apply for work visas. Sometimes brokers intrude into the process and cheat people. If the career development centre of a university explains to the students the work permit process of different countries, students will be aware beforehand and the process will be completed smoothly.
An important point about international job interview is salary negotiation. Failing to negotiate an initial job offer efficiently could mean missing out a large amount in salary for a typical career. It requires excellent skills for salary negotiation during job interview. The career development centre of a university is a suitable place to assist students to acquire salary negotiation skills for international jobs.
Next, how should a Bangladeshi job-seeker go about it while applying for an international job in a highly skilled position? The best practices for an international job interview actually require detailed research and planning. Anyone from Bangladesh or any other country expecting to take part in an interview of this type needs to thoroughly consider a number of things before an international job interview actually take place. Being chosen for international phone/video interview means that the interviewer is already considering the interviewees for the position and the outcome will be determined by how well this person performs in the international job interview and how adeptly they apply the best international job interview practices. Hence, preparing for the interview is essential and extremely important. Who will help prepare the international job-seekers in this regard? Of course, the career development centre of a university can prepare Bangladeshi job-seekers well.
The universal aim of universities is to provide knowledge; however, our universities should also strictly focus on developing human resources keeping in mind both domestic and international job market because human resource is a great asset if it can be utilised effectively and exported to the overseas job market sagaciously. Our universities can carry out research on creating awareness about current and future skills in demand in the receiving countries so that manpower export from Bangladesh can be enhanced. Based on recommendations of research, Bangladesh can overcome the challenges in international job market and universities should offer those courses which can meet the demand of the market.
The writer is English Language Faculty,  University of Buraimi, Oman.
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