Author: * K.Ranju Rangan
Introduction
Much of the world’s economies are ageing rapidly, and their contributions to the world’s population will be limited to a large extent.Most of the South East Asian Countries are a pioneer in governance without available accurate data. A lack of sufficient education and skills prevents migrants from these countries from achieving quality jobs. Skills and educational advancement for inclusive and sustainable growth are becoming a significant force in Asian countries. Asian countries are not lagging; on the contrary, they are working towards the growth of integrated skills and job routes. Skills development is high on the agenda for sustainable growth in developing countries in Asia. Those Asian countries, which relied on their cheap labour force and exports for economic growth, are increasingly finding that their growth is being restricted by declining international trade. This has been evidenced by the recent global financial crisis and the continuing economic contraction in many developing countries. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, emerging Asian economies are now adjusting their development strategies and addressing the challenge of “deleveraging growth” towards an increased reliance on domestic and regional demand.
The degree of imbalance between acquired training and the requirements of the economy implies that some of the training is Crafted for personal use rather than for professional advancement. This is fine if individuals are paying for such preparation. If the provider earns government subsidies, such training may be unwanted from a policy point of view. Credible forecasts of future skills shortages can help to create a coherent skills plan and help to assess training and skills growth challenges in combination with various global skills perspectives and learning. Workers, on the other hand, need to have access to certain levels of skills required to achieve the desired productivity levels. GCC countries should prioritise the appropriate skill levels at the priority level in each industry where migrant workers are employed. These levels should be brought into the context of the skill development programmes of the sending countries. Only by first targeting those with patently low skill levels can a broader combination of skills be achieved to fruition, as these individuals are more likely to be deleteriously impacted by many business failures plaguing the work atmosphere of the GCC.
In this context, most developing Asian countries aim to upgrade their labour force’s skills for sustainable growth and further job creation. Skill development of their labour force is a way to continue their growth and move from a middle-income country to a high-income country. For large economies, such as China or India, this means rebalancing their growth strategy from being dependent on foreign demand to relying more heavily on domestic and regional demand. Nevertheless, the primary goal for smaller economies is to step into newly-growing industries. Each country has different goals and adopts different strategies to achieve them.
Research Methodology
Individual country studies were performed in Bahrain, Kuwait , Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE from January 2020 to August 2020. A comprehensive questionnaire was established and forwarded to 06 employers in each country where all 06 nationalities of South Asian countries were a part of their workforce.
The research area concerned migrants from the construction sector. The study did not include female migrants. An average of 100 migrant workers from each employer was evaluated on the basis of their level of education and job skills and their current job assignments. The assessment was carried out solely on the basis of the findings of the HR practitioners and there was no direct interaction of the staff with the researcher.
Rational and objective
The six Member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC) is the central movement of migrant workers in South Asia. According to the latest numbers, the total projected migrants from six countries of South Asia is more than 2.5 million migrant workers. More than 90% of all migrant workers from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka work in the GCC region. 5Bangladesh and Nepal send more than 65% and the Philippines more than 52% of their migrant workers to the GCC region.
Despite the considerable benefits of South Asia – GCC migration flow, there are still many challenges to ensuring a fairer distribution of triple-win profits. Much has been written about the violations of migrant workers during recruitment and jobs during the migration period, but little is known about labour demand, its connection to skills and the effect of the recruitment process on these aspects. The lack of knowledge on qualifications, skills, salaries and the evolution of demand limits informed decision-making by public and private institutions as well as by migrant workers. This results in a lack of opportunities or investment in training both in source countries and in recipient countries. In addition, there is no scheme of mutual recognition of educational attainment and skills gained on the basis of equal criteria for low and semi-qualified occupations.
This article examined some of these concerns with a specific emphasis on the role of skills – including preparation, qualification, accreditation, deployment practices and potential labour demand – in both the countries of origin and destination.
Skill development linked to Migration
The steady supply of skilled and resourceful workers to GCC firms is essential in order to cement success in economic diversification and long-term sustainability initiatives. Better skill levels will attract better wages and more stable and satisfying employment. This will increase productivity and reduce the skill level gap. There is no universal interpretation of ‘skills.’ In many countries, ‘skills’ are specified in terms of technical skills and or academic attainment. Similarly, there is no single approach for the study of skills needs. What has proven useful, however, is a holistic approach: a blend of qualitative analysis and quantitative results.
The number of migrant workers registered with the government ministry from Bangladesh, Nepal , and Pakistan shows that the majority of South Asian migrant workers in GCC countries are low-skilled workers. Asian countries face common challenges in building skills infrastructure, developing a training market with quality suppliers, reducing capacity gaps, improving linkages between training and business needs, upgrading outdated training systems, and rising industry participation. This leads to acceptance of their employees as an under skilled majority in GCC. The below figure shows the distribution of Asian workforce in GCC countries.
| SL | COUNTRIES | PROFESSIONAL (%) | SKILLED (%) | SEMI SKILLED (%) | UNSKILLED (%) |
| 1 | Philippines | 9.86 | 34.46 | 53.01 | 1.39 |
| 2 | India | 14.6 | 46.31 | 37.7 | 2.1 |
| 3 | Nepal | 1.85 | 2.83 | 3.27 | 92.05 |
| 4 | Sri Lanka | 1.96 | 3.1 | 5.31 | 89.63 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 1.02 | 1.68 | 22.04 | 75.26 |
| 6 | Bangladesh | 0.23 | 1.25 | 1.87 | 96.65 |
Interview of 06 employers each in 05 GCC countries
In order to avoid brain waste and deskilling, weak integration of the labor market and the worsening of working conditions for all workers, the design and implementation of sound labor market information systems, including precise evaluation of labor market needs and anticipation of skills, and the implementation of skills identification processes are critical. Access to processes for the recognition of skills , especially for low- and medium-skilled migrant workers, is often minimal, while migrants often find it difficult to articulate their experiences from destination countries into better opportunities for the creation of human capital upon their return. There is a disparity between preparation and the demands of foreign employers. In the area of skills training, due to lack of transparency and coordination, there is no clear example of how the certification awarded by the awarding authority compares with other related certificates.
Challenges :
Creating pathways for international mobility and addressing the low involvement of women in the workforce and the public view of skills development as the last resort for those who struggle to engage in formal education. These are the big obstacles. Skills development is faced with a number of forms of market failures, including information asymmetries – a skilled person knows his or her skills, but a potential employer does not, no loyalty by employees to employers providing skills enhancement training, skills development programmes are not aligned to market needs. The lack of involvement of employers in the creation of skills curriculums has created a major gap in the sector ‘s needs and availability, the skills required by international employers and the skills of trainees. Training technique is a part of the skills required by the industry. There is a significant segment of informal workers in the South East Asian countries, many of whom hold abilities that have not been formally recognised. Skill mismatch is another area of concern where prospective trainees are never assessed and are rather coerced to train in a trade where seats are open.
There is a significant difference between the areas of training obtained and the desired training areas. There is no adequate survey of the skills needed and the skills training offered. In line with the substantial growth of private colleges and universities in recent years, the number of people receiving higher education has risen based on data from the labour force survey. The concern is that educational institutions are expanding on a corporate basis or are meeting the demands of the labour market. Whether the training earned by workers is consistent with the current trend of economic growth and compatible with the needs of economic diversification is a significant issue. The response is NO, which is why, relative to unskilled labour migration, skilled migration is still insignificant.
Asian countries’ problems are diverse, as their economic growth phases with enormous skill challenges such as:
- Formulating a training program where connected to business structure needs.
- Reducing skill gaps and rising training centers and industry collaboration in skill development.
- Reformatting skill sets as per the market ‘s rising paces.
- Increase industry involvement in training and development
These problems are interrelated and cannot be separately addressed. In practice, this poses the challenge of combining competence strategies, which includes dedicated dialogue for policy continuity and collaboration between various ministries and departments.
In order to understand the Skills Development Framework, each country’s Skills Development Model needs to be examined. Apparently, it is not realistic for any nation to have an infinite range of skill development models, but it can establish a programme that will be equally feasible for the local market and for employers abroad. Specific policies for the reintegration of returnees by actively engaging them in the promotion of skills development and awareness of safe migration should be developed by policymakers in these countries. Even though there is no universal approach to promote effective reintegration; the relative strengths of the different indicators and the nature of each project need to be focused on the local context and the profile of the returnees. Professional return migrants are poised to become more important to the strategy of local government. Moreover, they have the ability to help create global networks, to establish more ties between sending and receiving countries, and to contribute directly to development efforts.Skills development has not been a priority of the government in the past, and hence this area has always been neglected. Any skill development model requires high capital investment, and employers are not very likely to support such a model. When donors were overwhelmed with skill development programmes , the government took a more serious approach. The best examples can be seen in Bangladesh.
Conclusion :
Labour migration policies adopted by the GCC countries generally reflect recognition of the need to preserve the flow of migrant labour. Non-availability of the skill specification of the types of workers required and the concern to prevent settlement and ensure eventual return has been the drawback. This means that skill development programs should be connected in such a way that returning migrants can easily integrate into the local labour market. Bilateral labour agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) assume special importance as they embody the concept of mutual responsibility between countries of origin and destination. Such agreements should usefully enhance regional and multilateral labour migration and skill sets-required efforts. Labour demand is related to labour supply by recruitment and selection systems. This also has a buffering and distorting impact, because real economic patterns and migrant labour demand do not actually filter to the supply side. However, this process would not measure the employees ‘ abilities nor the initiatives they have been through.
Many countries perceive skill creation as a business rather than an economic enhancement. Workplace training in most Asian countries lacks well-developed institutional training infrastructure. Therefore, improving the capacity of firms as training partners or training organizations is a course that can be quicker and more sustainable to increase firms’ skill level and expertise strength. Local skills and training environments will provide a network framework for co-ordinating vocational training by involving more business in training, better placing trainees in businesses, and offering enhanced training incentives that better respond to changing demands of employers on the market.
Despite the significant benefits of South Asia – GCC migration flow, several challenges remain to ensure a fairer distribution of income. Much has been written about the violations of migrant workers during recruitment and jobs during the migration period, but little is known about labour demand, its connection to skills and the effect of the recruitment process on these aspects. The lack of knowledge on qualifications, skills, salaries and the evolution of demand limits informed decision-making by public and private institutions as well as by migrant workers. This results in a lack of opportunities or investment in training both in source countries and in recipient countries. Besides, there is no scheme of mutual recognition of educational attainment and skills learned based on matching criteria for low-and semi-qualified occupations.
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* K.Ranju Rangan, independent researcher and an HR professional from Qatar, is the founder of Exodus Research. In the Gcc countries, he was actively involved in labor migration issues of South-East Asians.