DOSE INDIVIDUAL ATTRIBUTES MATTERS ON THE EMPLOYABILITY READINESS AMONG ENGINEERING GRADUATES IN THE HIGH EDUCATION INSTITUTES IN OMAN

The aim of this study is to examine the effects individual attributes on the Employability Readiness among engineering graduates of the High Education Institutes in Oman. The study adopted self-directed structured questionnaire which was distributed to a sample of engineering students and graduates from a number of colleges and universities. The study used the structural equation modelling (SEM) for analysing the collected data. The findings of the statistical analysis of the study showed the most influential individual attributes on graduates’ readiness for employability are workshop attendance that affect the attainment of the technical skills of the graduates, family motivations, and graduates’ career orientations that help graduates to identify future career requirements and future career opportunities, and graduates’ personal learning targets. Also, class attendance, academic excellence, financial sources, and parents’ career position showed high important effects as well. The findings of this attribute which consist of the individual attributes of personnel’s’ values, attitudes, abilities, and work-life balance enhance the graduates attainment of the adaptability and flexibility attributes for their future readiness for employability. Therefore, study findings showed Individual attributes factor has high influence on the Readiness for Employability of the graduates in Oman. Finally, the study’s implementations and recommendations could be transferred to the Gulf and Arab or other countries’ contexts having similar settings of HE systems and similar issues of skills gap and employability concern of their graduates.

THE EFFECTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL ATTRIBUTES ON THE EMPLOYABILITY READINESS AMONG ENGINEERING GRADUATES IN THE HIGH EDUCATION INSTITUTE’S IN OMAN

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of human capital attributes on the employability readiness of the engineering graduates of the High Education Institutes in Oman. The study adopted self-directed structured questionnaire distributed to a sample of engineering students and graduates from a number of colleges and universities. The study used the structural equation modelling (SEM) for analysing the collected data. The findings of the statistical analysis of the study showed that Omani graduates signify professional ethics and morality, teamwork including respecting others, cooperating, negotiating, persuading, and contributing to discussions, Communication skills including listening and questioning, Capacity for lifelong learning including openness to new ideas, Creative thinking of the ability to develop and apply appropriate solutions, and Problem solving skills of the ability to analyse facts and situations as the top required skills of Readiness for Employability. Specifically, study findings showed Human capital attributes factor has high influence on the Readiness for Employability of the graduates in Oman. Finally, the study’s implementations and recommendations could be transferred to the Gulf and Arab or other countries’ contexts having similar settings of HE systems and similar issues of skills gap and employability concern of their graduates.

WORLD TRADE AFTER COVID-19 PANDEMIC SHOCK – RECOVERY OR STAGNATION?

Globalization has shorten the world & make the life easier. It also results liberalization of trade. Hence, world trade or global trade acts as a coordinator of foreign trade of different countries. Due to the behavioral and structural position, world trade is also responsible for spreading crises and infectious diseases. Nowadays the world is facing a perilous situation for worldwide spreading of COVID-19 pandemic. The acceleration of this pandemic causes the deceleration of the normal life of the nations. The leaders of most of the countries implement restrictive policies to protect their citizens from this pandemic, i.e., lockdown, travel restrictions. Consequently, COVID-19 produces an economic impact through the interruptions of personal income, world trade, and demand & supply chain. After the last financial crisis 2008-09, the world is again facing a destructive fall in world trade. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of world trade during COVID-19 and the present situation of this whether it is in stagnation or recovery. The paper uses secondary data from different journals, websites, newspapers and blogs for analysis purposes. This paper concludes that the world merchandise trade’s recovery is stronger than the world services trade. The reasons for sluggish world services trade is the restricted international travels & tourisms. There is no equal merchandise trade recovery for all the countries. Some countries are winners & some are losers.

APPLICATION OF SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF MAIZBHANDARI TARIQA ON BUSINESS ETHICS FOR SME’S SUSTAINABILITY IN FATIKCHARI, BANGLADESH

Ethical awareness is vital for business organizations to gain the trust of customers and the sustenance of business. Inner purification is a prerequisite for developing ethical personification, thus, helping an individual demonstrate the culmination of morality. At the same time, we need to transform self-purification into organizational behaviour. In this case, Usul-e-Sab’a (the seven principles) originated by “Khatam ul Awliya '' Gauth al-Azam Hazrat Maulana Shah Sufi Syed Ahmad Ullah (R.) can play a vital role. The seven principles’ methods can assist the business community to bring business sustenance through awakening morality and ethics. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to bring sustainability in the business and in the organizational behaviour through Usul-e-Sab’a (the seven principles) which is an effective method of self-purification and also the attainment of morality. In order to draw an effective result, the exploratory research design has been applied. For collecting data, a survey questionnaire was developed and was administered to the chosen traders. The findings of the study show business sustainability of those SME traders have been increased who practice ethics for their business. The study will assist the trader’s community, in general, to build up a moral life and organize their business with honesty and integrity.

GREEN BANKING: AN INDISPENSABLE STEP FOR THE BANK TO SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT

This research aims at keeping our planet safe which we are harming day by day by the advancement of modern civilization. In modern age, we are now vastly dependent on bank sector for our important activities. As a result, banks in Bangladesh are performing digitalize and effective activities to maintain a sound economy due to emphasize public services for profits. In this study the authors found that profit should not be earned at the expense of the world's most pressing environmental problem which can be caused a climate change through global warming. Western countries have already thought out of the box and introduced green banking for sustainable development. Sampling framed and statistical tools used by researchers and reveals that green banking (GB) is not only corporate social responsibility (CSR) but also in broader sense of corporate environmental responsibility (CER). It also explains the main objective of green banking is to keep the world livable without any significant damage. Specifically, we already have seen the light. But we have to adopt this idea for all commercial Bank either public or private.

Effect of Non-Performing Loans on the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Nigeria

The study examined the effect of Non-Performing Loans on the financial performance of commercial banks in Nigeria between the periods of 1985 to 2016. The study employed the multiple regression techniques to analyze data collated from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) publications for various years. The result of the study shows that Non-Performing Loans to Total Loans ratio (NPL/TLR) and Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) had statistically negative significant effect on Return on Asset (ROA). These result shows that a high level of non-performing loans would reduce the financial performance of commercial banks in Nigeria. Consequently, the study recommends that the regulatory authorities in Nigeria should create and support an environment where commercial banks in Nigeria can have a strong risk management practices.

Impact of Reward and Recognition, Supervisor Support on Employee Engagement

Employee engagement play a key role for the success of any organization because they provides the highest employee satisfaction , lower employee turnover rate , greater employee loyalty, better customer service, higher sales and higher profitability. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of reward and recognition and perceived supervisor support on employee engagement. The method used in research is quantities descriptive. We used questionnaire to collect data. The population in this study consisted of employees of Muslim Commercial Bank & National Bank of Pakistan. Data were collected in Multan from 108 employees but unfortunately 08 questionnaire data rejected because the data was not proper fill. The data were analyzed using through statically package for social science (SPSS Version 21).The results show that reward & recognition and supervisor support can engage employees for better performance. Hence; employee’s engagement can improve through the reward and recognition and supervisor support.

Impact of COVID on Online Teaching Platform: Study on IB Curriculum in Bangladesh

The sudden upsurge of Covid 19 pandemic has caused an immense effect in all the sectors throughout the world. Likewise, the education sector is no exception. Many countries around the world have decided to keep the educational institutions closed as an attempt to stop the pandemic from spreading. As a result of the outbreak of this pandemic the government of Bangladesh has declared a general holiday since March 23, 2020. In this scenario, most of the educational institutions have called off their on-campus activities and chose online platforms to continue their academic activities. Although the virtual classes initially began at only a few private institutions, the number started to rise gradually. There is an increase in the number of learners and institutions using the internet to continue the learning journey as the days are passing by. This paper aims to discuss the problems and prospects of online teaching in Bangladesh presenting a comparative picture between the mainstream education and International Baccalaureate curriculum applying during pandemic lockdown. This paper uses Abdul Kadir Molla International School to present a partial picture of the online teaching scenario in Bangladesh. The paper discusses some challenges such as unavailability of digital devices, unstable internet connection, lack of teachers training etc. Some queries, concerns and thoughts along with some recommendations are put before your discussion.

Analyzing the Performance of Mega Construction Projects in Oman: A Study of Selected Projects from Oil & Gas Sector

This study investigates Omani O&G project’s performance and analyzes the most common time and cost overrun causes. In addition, the effects of delays are examined further along with the key enablers for efficient project delivery. This study adopts a mix method of research to improve the level of credibility of the study. A sample of 160 respondents is employed following both quantitative and qualitative method where a well-structured questionnaire was used for interviews with the concerned personnel. Following the quantitative method, this study revealed that 8% of the respondents, says the projects have completed ON time where the response rate was 80%. Besides, the qualitative part backed up this data as most of them have experienced delay of 3 months to 2 years of delay. For cost, 3% of the respondents have experienced projects finishing ON budget and the interviewees have expressed that the average cost overrun is between 10%-30%. In terms of time overrun group factors, the top group time-overrun factors among all the three parties are management factors, where it is ranked first by all stakeholders. The sub-group factor that affects more is the project planning and control. Poor understanding of scope of work during tendering factor is ranked first with main contractor and second with both the client and engineering firms. This factor is most factors that has similar ranking between all. As matter of fact is the only factor that exists between in the top 10 among all stakeholders. This study claimed that understanding the scope of work of the project properly and giving its time to be grasped by the contractors is one of the key solutions to tackle the top factor of this research. Also, the SOW must be detailed as possible to avoid any conflict between the parties, one of the recommended details to have WBS included.

Job Insecurity in Private Education Sector Considering COVID-19 Pandemic: Bangladesh Panorama

Job insecurity is one of the vexed questions here in the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Private sector employees are agonizing mostly due to this problem. In the midst of July within three months of the crisis, about 13 percent of people have become unemployed in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The educational institutions are closed in Bangladesh from 17 March 2020 due to this crisis. So the private education sector job holders are in a precarious situation in terms of their job security. In this study, we investigate the vacillation of job security for private education employees. For this purpose we questioned 100 private education sector employees such as School, College and University to find out the actual scenarios. Most of the private educational institution depends on its own income from the student’s tuition fees; hence the trouble to manage it for the deadlock condition and their employees are also in a financial dilemma. Though some of them are started online programs in the true picture, they will suffer as the ballgame advancing. Bangladesh's government announces thirty thousand core incentives to face economic hazards. The particular employees in this stratum are benefited from trivial brink. Some lay off strategy can save both the victimized party.