Tag: middle-east

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Starting a New Company: Trials, Tribulations, and Initial Success

Season’s greetings and a Happy New Year.

As we come to the end of 2014 and our first ninety days of operational existence as Edu Alliance Ltd., it seems like a good time to update our friends and supporters on our new venture.

On October 1st, Dr. Senthil Nathan, who recently retired after 21 years at Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) where he served as Deputy Vice Chancellor, and I formally incorporated Edu Alliance and established an office in the Masdar Free Zone on the campus of Masdar Institute.  We both completed our employment at our respective organizations; Senthil at HCT and myself at The United Arab Emirates Advanced National Research & Education Network (Ankabut).

In the month of September we spent a great deal of time wrapping up our current employment and finishing the business / legal and residency processes to establish our business entity.

Starting your own company in the Middle East is not like starting a LLC in the US, which seems to take about 10 minutes and not much money. In the UAE, which is more business friendly than many other countries in the region setting up in a Free Zone is the easiest route and lets you have direct 100% ownership of your company. Still, it’s a mountain of paperwork to fill out that must be approved by the Free Zone plus getting clearances from the government and establishing the bank you will use. Senthil and I did it in breakneck speed for out here, but the waiting time for final approval and getting your license can make your hair go gray, unless you are like me and already have white hair.

The next hurdle is getting your residency visa. This cannot start until your license and company has been approved. You must fill out more forms, clear security, take a physical, get your ID cards, and then wait. During this period if you are a personality like me you will conjure up all kinds of things that might go wrong ranging from filling out forms wrong or reconsidering why starting a business such a bright idea. However within thirty days of getting the business incorporated everything is approved and you quite worrying they are going to put you on a plane to Louisville, Kentucky.     

During October we didn’t spend all of our time getting visa’s and legal documents We also began setting up initial meetings with a selected group of supporters and a targeted group of potential clients beginning in early November.

We held our first of introductory meetings with presidents of three universities in the UAE to introduce, Edu Alliance.  We were pleased to get an immediate request to submit a proposal in our very first meeting with a university in the UAE. Within a few days the proposal was accepted, and a formal contract awarded. The project commenced in mid-November and was completed in early December.

ECT web shotThe first client was Emirates College of Technology, based in the UAE with well over 2,000 students enrolled in its programs. They commissioned Edu Alliance to help develop in-house capacity for market research. This objective was accomplished through two customized, evidence driven and locally relevant workshops in close coordination with the university’s institutional research division. We helped create relevant templates and processes for new program proposals based on market research.

Our second client was KPMG in the GCC. We were appointed as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) – in work related to universities, colleges and schools.   As you know, KPMG is one of the largest professional services companies in the world (one of the Big Four consulting / audit firms), which has offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In November, we provided for KPMG advisory service / organizational review for a major chain of K-12 schools and in December an internal audit and academic review of a leading UAE research university.  

During the run up and the past 90 days, we also established an Advisory Board, which currently is composed of 10 renowned international experts in areas related to higher education, research and human capital development. They bring their breadth of knowledge and experience gained through years of professional involvement of knowledge of the United Arab Emirates, Gulf Regions and as well as in the international settings. You can visit our website at http://www.edu-alliance.net/our-team/advisors/ to see who they are. We are fortunate to have such people who believe in us and the work we are doing.

We believe the initial success of the first ninety days confirms Edu Alliance is offering quality services the education community believes are important for their planning and future success.

We are arranging meetings to introduce ourselves to a number educational institutions throughout the UAE and GCC over the next few months. If you would like us to come and visit with you to discuss how we may be of service to your organization please email or call me.

Senthil and I thank you for your support and belief in us. We ask that you continue to be our advocates and make introductions on potential clients. Also we welcome any thoughts on how we can expand business and branding.  Feel free to write or call either one of us. 

Once again, Season’s Greetings and a very Happy New Year.

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Why employment relevance matters in higher education?

This week I am posted a  guest article by a friend and colleague, Dr. Senthil Nathan, Deputy Vice Chancellor/ Vice Provost,of Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. It’s a thought-provoking piece on higher education and employment relevance. Please read and react by posting your comments.

You may have watched Fareed Zakaria articulate last month on his “Global Public Square” (GPS) program on CNN about “Why the liberal arts matter” in higher education. http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/24/why-the-liberal-arts-matter/

However, a 21st century debate that needs to occur within academia around the world should be on “Why employment relevance matters in higher education”.

Data from around the world are incredibly strong to suggest a significant and still growing gap between what the business expects and what educators provide in terms of skills of graduates. According to a recent McKinsey report, only 42% of employers and 45% of the students worldwide believe that new graduates are adequately prepared for the world of work. On the other hand, 72% of the educators believe that graduates are adequately prepared for the job market. This is indeed a serious gap in perception.

http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Education-to-Employment_FINAL.pdf

I will cite some more evidence on these skills gaps and perception gaps – from the three higher education regions that I am familiar with:

a) In the United States, since the 2008 financial crisis, President Obama and several state governors have pointed out to growing skill gaps. In their recommendations entitled “Prepare the American Workforce to Compete in the Global Economy”, President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (Jobs Council) provides evidence pointing to this growing skills gap.
http://files.jobs-council.com/files/2012/01/JC_FactSheet_Education.pdf

Many of the 3.3m jobs in the USA are going unfilled for lack of qualified workers particularly in the technical specializations. There are important recommendations in this executive summary for US leaders in education to consider seriously.

b) About this challenge in the Middle East, a 2012 UNESCO “Report on Skills Gaps” http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002178/217874e.pdf

cites the lack of available talent and trained resources in the Middle East region as the
greatest threat identified by Arab CEOs; only half of them believe that such skilled graduates are provided in sufficient quantities. Only 37% of Gulf business leaders are satisfied with the supply of employable graduates. This skills gap is even more alarming in view of the fact that 100 million new jobs have to be created by 2020 to absorb the new entrants into the labor market in the Arab countries. This challenge faced by the MENA region is perhaps the most complex, multi-faceted and the most serious one in the world. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_YouthEmployment_ArabWorld_Report_2012.pdf

c) India: Interestingly and somewhat ironically, this skills gap seems to be the most acute in the so-called “outsource haven” of India. “The shortage of appropriately skilled labor across many industries is emerging as a significant and complex challenge to India’s growth and future. According to National Association of Software Companies, each year over 3 million graduates and post-graduates are added to the Indian workforce. However, of these only 25% of technical graduates and 10-15% of other graduates are considered employable by the rapidly growing IT and ITES segments. India would require a workforce of 2.3 million employees in the IT and ITES sectors by 2015 – however, over the past 15 years, India has produced only 1.6 million professionals and faces the uphill task of producing another 0.8 million in the next two years.” http://www.onefoundation.in/papers.php.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to address the following topics in more depth.

1) Should educators take more responsibility for the employment of their graduates? The McKinsey report’s surveys indicate that linking students to employment opportunities is just a middle priority for education providers.

2) How should the governments intervene in addressing this widening skills gap? Creating employment opportunities and producing employable graduates – are these not two sides of the same coin?

3) To what extent employers be more proactive rather than simply leaving this gap to be addressed by the educators and the government? Can the employers collaborate much more actively with regional colleges and universities to help produce the graduates with the right skills – by divesting some of their entry-level training budget to sponsoring such collaborative academic programs?

4) How can youth (and their parents) take on more responsibility in making the right choices for their career programs? While the number of jobs in STEM majors continues to rise, only a small % of US students pursue these programs. Similarly, while there is a demonstrated need for significant number of graduates in vocational trades in the Middle East, social perceptions pressurize students to pursue academic programs.

For these future discussions, I welcome input from my learned colleagues from business and academia – particularly on best practices that they may have experienced in each of these areas.