Qualification Inflation of Technical Education Outcomes in the State of Kuwait

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The relevance and relation of education in jobs in general and that of higher education in particular, have been the focus of many investigators in different countries. Studies have reported that there are signs of deficiencies in the lower echelon of the technical workforce and also a significant imbalance in the infrastructure of the labor market. The phenomenon is reported in all countries of the Arab world in general, in the U.K., Sweden, U.S.A., Brazil and Greece. Some studies reported that the phenomenon is more exaggerated in the Gulf countries, particularly, Qatar. The phenomenon was termed as 'over-schooling' and 'over-education'. The importance of the phenomenon has become significant due to its key role in understanding the problems facing the economy such as, productivity, under-employment, unemployment, foreign labor force, competition, low returns and investment, especially in relation to education. Therefore, the need to study the qualification inflation among graduates at PAAET in Kuwait became apparent in order to gain insight into possible causes, effects and outcomes. Various indicators will be gathered by analyzing documents, reports, statistics and investigations using questionnaires through a field survey from a representative, stratified samples of PAAET graduate workers in private and public sectors as well as employers and decision-makers, in addition to on-the-job observations. Statistical analysis of multi-national regression of data will be applied. For planners, the results will be useful as a tool to predict future changes and for better preparation of PAAET graduates to meet the demands of the labor market and for development as well as increase in job security and for establishing increased productivity, job retention and satisfaction. For graduates, the results could be used for career counseling and thus shorten the time needed to search for suitable jobs