Nepal fails to supply high-skilled professional to int’l markets

 Kathmandu, June 23

As the international markets continue to revive after the coronavirus ravaged the global economy for two years, number of Nepalis going abroad in search of jobs has witnessed an exponential growth.

But despite two decades track record of exporting human resources, Nepal has largely failed to supply high skilled and professional manpower to the Gulf countries and elsewhere.  According to the statistics of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), only eight high skilled and 48 professional human resources left country for job abroad in a month from mid-May to mid-June this year while the department had issued about 62,349 labour approvals during the same period.

However, the number of unskilled workers was 21,307 and skilled 35,801.

A month earlier, from mid-April to mid-May, high skilled and professional Nepali workers’ number going for foreign employment was 10 and 54 respectively while there were 15,794 unskilled workers among the total of 45,004.

Last year, during mid-May to mid-June, only 4086 Nepali workers obtained approval for foreign jobs. Of them, only one was high skilled and three were professional, and 1,565 were unskilled. Due to COVID-19 pandemic many countries, including Gulf countries and South Korea had stopped the recruitment process of foreign workers in 2020 and 2021.

Similarly, from mid-April to mid-May in 2021, six high skilled and 36 professional were leaving country for various jobs. The total number of Nepali migrant workers obtaining approval was 24,363 and about 11,626 among them were unskilled.

The statistics of the DoFE showed that about half of the Nepali migrant workers who left the country in the last fiscal year 2020/21 were unskilled. That year about 166,698 Nepali workers obtained approval for foreign jobs and 80,382 were unskilled while only 61 were high skilled professionals.

High skilled and professional human resources include engineers, doctors, IT professionals, pilots and managers.

However, it is unfortunate in the part of the country that it has failed to increase the number of high skilled and semi-skilled workers going for foreign employment even after the three decades’ experience in the sector.

“Initially, all the countries were sending low-skilled workers abroad but in the years following they reversed the situation while Nepal lag in the process,” said Director General of the DoFE, Shesh Narayan Poudel.

According to him, Nepal is not a preferred source country for the high-skilled manpower as education and training system here is yet to reform to the global standards.

This trend has contributed to the low income of Nepali workers in the foreign countries, they have low bargaining power and opportunity for skill enhancement and are forced to perform high-risk jobs, Poudel maintained.

Meanwhile, it has affected the remittance inflow as well. Had the number of semi-skilled and high-skilled workers been increased the size of remittance would have been increased significantly.

Experts have suggested reforming the school education and establishing polytechnic institutes across the country to train the youth in various skills.  

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 June 2022.