ARAB STATES: Unemployment figures frightening

Unemployment in the Arab world has reached 14% and the number of jobless is estimated to be 17 million, many of them university graduates, according to Arab Labour Organisation figures for 2008. Arab governments have warned that belts will have to be tightened during the global economic crises to cope with an influx of job-seekers and the return of some Arab expatriates.

The question is what higher education policy should the 22 Arab states follow to assist job-seeking professionals, students and fresh graduates, and to minimise the negative impact on the job market resulting from the return of expatriates who bring tremendous potential for growth within knowledge-intensive sectors of Arab economies.

"Lots of people are losing their jobs and there are no vacancies for fresh graduates," Tarek Saif, a researcher at Egypt's National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, told University World News. "This will make the figures for present and future Arab graduate unemployment even more frightening and disturbing."

Saif noted the Arab world had lost US$2.5 trillion as a result of the ongoing global financial and economic crisis, and that about 60% of development projects had been postponed or cancelled by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council states.

The Labour Organisation figures estimated entrants to the labour market to be 3.1 million last year and that Arab governments would have to create 3.9 million new jobs annually to accommodate existing and new job seekers.

"We cannot bury our head in the sand any longer by blaming the global economic crisis," Saif said. "There is a need for sweeping structural reforms and not the cosmetic brand that decision-makers are carrying out most of the time. We need to examine our higher education system and focus on the development and training of human resources."

The US-based Brookings Institution published a study this year in Arabic indicating that although Arab spending on education was high, the quality of education did not meet global standards. Students performed poorly on international tests in mathematics and science. The study identified lack of qualified personnel as the largest obstacle to innovation.

The Brookings study also argued that Arab universities inadequately prepared graduates for jobs and that the links between science and markets were weak, hindering the commercial application of knowledge.

Asked about challenges facing Arab countries as a result of expatriates returning home, and the possible effect on graduate unemployment, Saif said returnees offered tremendous potential for growth through their contributions within the academic sphere and within knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy, which would benefit Arab society as a whole.

He said the approval by the first Arab economic and social development summit, held in Kuwait in January, of a new US$2 billion Arab fund to help small enterprises could ease graduate unemployment. This would provide opportunities for graduates and expatriates to take out loans and start businesses which would lead to economic growth and create jobs.

Although Arab countries are entering a new phase of economic development, with emphasis on the crucial role of science and technology in promoting sustainable development, the amount spent each year on Arab military imports from abroad was more than the combined investment in health, education, and research and development

Saif said private enterprises in the Arab region accounted for just 1% of R&D, universities 30% and governments 69%. In OECD countries, 70% of R&D was performed by private enterprise, 17% by universities and 10% by government. Companies should be encouraged to make training an integral part of their business plans and be given financial support to help them develop and implement staff training programmes, he said.

Higher education institutions should set up special programmes to provide the private sector with a skilled scientific workforce, offer courses in science-based business - because Arab countries produced an excess of graduates in conventional fields. They should also focus efforts on emerging sectors such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and renewable energy.

There was also a need for small business-oriented 'enterprise training' and vocational guidance centres, as well as short-term training programmes for skill acquisition and enhancement, as 44% of Arab researchers worked in the water and agriculture sectors, indicating the region had not yet entered the knowledge economy.

Hilmi Salem, a scientist and higher education consultant at a Palestine-based sustainable development research institute, told University World News the graduate unemployment problem pointed to a deeper, more serious and long-term issue with a higher education system producing graduates who lacked soft skills such as time management, creative thinking and communication skills, as well as workplace readiness and experience.

It also indicated a failure of businesses to absorb more graduates into training or internship programmes and to commit to them despite their youth and lack of experience.

"While no single short-term solution will solve the problem, policies to increase the quality of the higher education system [and its ability] to produce industry-ready graduates, as well as establishing entrepreneurship programmes at university level to help graduates to quickly enter the job market, must be included in a higher education reform agenda," Salem suggested.

He called for establishing close and productive links between industry and R&D institutions including universities, science and technology centres, science parks and incubators to encourage innovation-based business

This could be done by establishing a universities-based intelligence system to promote science and technology investment by screening S&T information to pick up creative ideas that could be transformed into products and processes. Also, by cooperating with the private sector to set up commercially viable science-based enterprises, this could lay the foundations for S&T-based 'home-grown' entrepreneurial ventures that could generate jobs.