The government is aiming to increase the “employability” of Muslim youth from the city in the Gulf countries with a six-month course in colloquial Arabic, the same one that foreign consular staff posted in the UAE are required to enrol for.

Started by the youth services department, the course will be available from July for a nominal fee of Rs 150-200. The faculty has been drawn from Calcutta University and Maulana Azad College.

“There are job opportunities galore in the Gulf, especially in construction and banking. This course will help candidates acquire basic linguistic skills and improve their job prospects. We are starting this as a pilot project. If successful, we intend to take the course to the districts with a high Muslim population,” R.P.S. Kahlon, the secretary of youth services, said.

Apart from language skills, the youth will be taught how to use computer software in Arabic. The youth services department has tied up with madarsas and schools that have the requisite infrastructure for this training module.

The youth services department has never tried to ascertain how many people from Bengal work in the Gulf, but officials say with certainty that the state is far behind Maharashtra and Kerala in this respect.

The director of the Institute of Anglo-Arabic and Islamic Studies, Saba Ismail Nadvi, said merely starting a course in basic Arabic would not increase the employability of a potential immigrant to the Gulf.

“Knowledge of Arabic is an advantage but not the solution. The problem that needs to be solved first is the lack of awareness among Muslim youth in Calcutta about job opportunities in the Gulf,” he pointed out.

One of Nadvi’s suggestions for the government is to open a placement cell to help youth find jobs in the UAE, Oman or Kuwait.

“There is not a single placement agency in Calcutta with a reputation for finding good jobs in the Gulf for its clients. The youth are actually being duped by brokers who promise jobs and charge hefty amounts of money. The government should first set up a good placement agency,” he said.