Big Dreams, Limited Scopes

Zunaed Rabbani
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It is of no doubt that the employment scenario for young professionals in Bangladesh has come a long way, especially in the last two decades. Thanks to the multinational companies, INGOs, donor organisations and local firms subcontracting for foreign ones, the salary level in many organisations has allowed a generation with a decent disposable income that can be reflected in their continuous presence in lounges and restaurants and frequent trips to Bangkok and Kuala Lampur. In spite of many of the 'prouds' or 'too prouds' of the salary earned or the organisations worked for, the time now has come to raise the bar. It is time we start thinking about playing in a bigger field and hence, create a home-grown, educated young labour force that can compete internationally. Very little has been done or said for the possibilities of this breed of young adults, who dream big but have limited scopes to take direct chances at international job markets.

Many will argue that home-grown Bangladeshis are already doing well globally, but compared to the Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and even Vietnamese, the number of Bangladeshis excelling in the mainstream job market is quite insignificant. A deeper look will suggest that none of them had a direct shot at those jobs. Most, if not all, of the young professionals with Bangladeshi passports are working abroad either followed by their academic programme in that country or through inter-company transfers.

Unfortunately, neither our education system nor our foreign relations allow direct access to international job markets. If we can have thousands of Chinese and Koreans, and hundreds of Indians, Americans and Europeans working in Bangladesh, we too should have the legal right to gain access to their mainstream job market. Whether or not we choose to work abroad that is a separate story, but we should have the choice first. May be not like a European or an American for who the world is truly an oyster, but at least like the Indians and the Pakistanis who have easier access to many Asian and GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries respectively, whereas, most of us are left to swim in a small pond, unless a DV visa or a costly academic programme bails us out and gives us the opportunity to target jobs in international markets.

It is not about earning in dollars or pounds, rather the 'extra edge' one gets for the rest of his or her career. A young Bangladeshi, Samai Haider, who worked for the UK Treasury feels that the competitive and diverse working environment that exists abroad allows one to think out of the box and have a broader perspective. And not to mention, she adds, “the exposure and networking opportunities are simply unparalleled,” recalling from her experience, “… suddenly you have prospective employers, stakeholders, anyone in general making time to meet you and address your queries. A far cry from when all you have is a degree from an institution in Bangladesh, which the world knows nothing of.” This suggests a lack of credibility or exposure or both of our educational institutions and academic system to the professional world out there. The same tone of dissatisfaction echoed in almost everyone I have spoken to regarding our education system which barely allows young professionals to compete in the global job market. There needs to be more collaboration and affiliation with top ranked universities of the world, not with the ones who don't even make it to their country's top 30 list.

But is it only the lack of exposure of our universities or the plight of our education system? Professionally too, a lot needs to be done to bring more Bangladeshis into the competitive international job market. Nabila Jabeen Khan and Chowdhry Ashik Mahmud, a young couple now pursuing post graduate programmes in two top business schools in London feel that academic degrees and professional experience in Bangladesh are not recognised at par. Even those who work in multinational organisations face a challenging environment, mainly because of the hierarchical working environment prevalent in most of the offices in Dhaka, which allows little rooms for young people to be innovative and take initiatives, leading many of our graduates to settle for a lower lateral post.

Age is another key factor. By the time a British or an Indian graduate enters the job market, in most cases, he or she has few years of experience through multiple internships or voluntary work. On the other hand, for us, professional exposure starts 3 months before our graduation, with an internship and that too turns out to be a mere formality. If we want to create a band of young achievers in the true global sense, we must let our youth enter the job market as early as possible.

In addition, we need to structure our job experience so that they are sellable both in domestic and international markets. While it is very common for every other young student to be involved in some sort of charity concert or fundraising events for cyclone victims or street children, the impact is far greater if they are affiliated with the world's leading charities, say for example, Oxfam, Care International and others, which boost up the CV by a few notches.

Language has long been labelled as a barrier but nothing concrete has been done about it so far. Most of the international jobs require at least two UN languages -- French, Spanish and Arabic being the most popular ones other than English. Although we too have Alliance Francaise and a few other language training institutions, a formal inclusion of these languages in the academic programmes, at least in the university level would do only good, if no harm.

Simultaneously, we need to keep promoting our pool of talents in the foreign market. I see hundreds of foreign universities promoting their programmes in our country, their Ambassadors too. As much as we like to have our brightest brains study there, we also want the options to enter their job market for those who may or may not have studied there. It will not come on a silver plate if we do not demand it in the first place.

It is also about time we understand that English is not the only foreign language and North America, Australia and England are not the only destinations. For decades, we have had our gaze set so far on both sides of the Atlantic, from politics to job markets that we have not looked into other countries, which are closer and may offer same or even better outcomes. Going by the interests of the countries we love to follow, it is evident that Asia-Pacific is the place to be for the new century, with China and India promising a wealth of opportunities. Our government should negotiate with these two countries and other ASEAN countries like Singapore or Malaysia to allow a certain number of work permits every year for our home-grown young professionals, if not an 'open access' on the basis of our merit. I just hope at least one person inside our ministries do not hold the stereotypical perception of branding someone less patriotic or labelling it as typical 'brain drain' should one chooses to work abroad. This just makes us too local in a global world!

(The writer studied International Development in the UK and also worked in the field, especially around private sector engagement with development issues.)