Skills Development: Vocational Education
in the Islamic Countries
11
1.1.3. Why skills are under-utilized?
In least developed countries (LDCs), the labour market does not have a wide modern
manufacturing sector which limits possibilities for creation of jobs. Most of the developing
countries are facing few common challenges which lead to less opportunities to explore
industrial revolution in those countries. It further leads towards less exports, and encourages
more imports in those countries. Another challenge that most of these countries face is poor
business environment and high labour costs. This is why, foreign investors are not willing to
invest in their economy (King, 2007). Another issue is inadequate equipment and machineries
to facilitate work. This leads to under-utilization of the countries’ resources. For instance, in
many cases, one single machine can be operated by over four workers which produces less
output from workers. If adequate equipment is availed, then the production could be increased
four times. In this way, many less developed countries under utilize their skilled labour.
Little or no investments from government and other organizations to support and pr omote
craftsmanship, this can be experienced where skilled youth/citizens can master a craft/trade
(for examplemetal fabrication) and they require some equipment/capital tohelp themproduce
quality products on a large scale and with competitive quality on the world market but their
government does not support themwith fund toacquire requiredmachinery andmaybe employ
different professionals like marketers and accountants. This leads to such start -up ventures
collapse, hence rendering all the employees jobless leading to under/non-utilization of their
skills.
Skills mismatch (under-utilization of skills) is also found in Government’s appointments. In
many cases, it is found that a highly skilled individual is appointed into an administrative office.
For example, in Nigeria one of the OIC member countries, it is found that, an electrician
appointed tobe commissioner of health which implies that he or she cannot utilize his/her skills
as an electrician in the health sector where mostly he/she would deal with health related
activities rendering his electrical skills under-utilized (Usen, Udofia, & Offiong, 2012). In
Bangladesh (another OIC country), the most prestigious Government job is known as BCS
(Bangladesh Civil Service) Cadre. Skilled people can apply for this post by changing their
particular trades. More particularly, technical people (professional cadre) having very speci fic
skills are eligible to apply in general cadre (non-technical post). For example, a skilled person
having civil engineering background may apply for BCS public health or BCS Foreign Service .
Most Graduates in VET rarely continue their studies in advancing their skills. This poses a high
risk in this technological era due to the changing nature of technology. Many skilled workers
may fail to update their skills with these changes and therefore, their skills can easily be
outdated, absolute and later, may not utilize their skills effectively. If a vocational graduate who
is trained to repair cathode ray tube (CRT) of television sets and monitors does not advance
his/her skills to repair light emitting diodes (LED), then he/she would face challenges due to
recent technological changes implying under-utilization of his/her skills.
When graduates of VET do not display employable skills, then there is a chance to have under -
utilized youth in any country. This is usually caused by failure to instil employable skills by the
institutes due to following reasons:
 unqualified instructors
 gap between VET education and industrial practices
 Other issues hindering teaching and learning process (two issues are listed below)