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International Trade in Services
interested in pursuing the engineering profession. In this respect, Morocco may be well positioned to export educational services by attracting foreign students. Given the employment opportunities at the global level, highly regarded colleges of engineering can actively work to raise enrollments, while maintaining high standards. Professional bodies and trade associations can undertake to highlight the opportunities in the engineering profession to prospective students. For example, in Germany, engineering firms are offering discovery boxes filled with science experiments for 3-to-6-year-olds in kindergarten to excite interest in the field of engineering (Milne 2008). Professional bodies and engineering firms can facilitate internships for youth with engineering professionals. They can create links with secondary educational institutions through engineering competitions and award programs. Professional bodies and trade associations can circulate career guides and information on engineering employment trends to secondary educational institutions in a region. Such initiatives can leverage educational assets to increase employment in the growing engineering profession.
Adopting an offensive (rather than defensive) trade strategy Developing countries can institute a program to create a better environment for engineering professionals. An effective starting point is an engineering service policy dialogue at the national level to gather information on the engineering marketplace at home and abroad. Such a dialogue can create important information for decision makers and negotiators. This dialogue can provide information on the following: • Employment in the engineering profession, the contribution of the profession to gross domestic product, growth trends • Domestic engineering service firms operating at home and abroad • Firm business models, areas of expertise, and export markets of interest • Why certain markets are of particular interest in terms of exports • Trade barriers in export markets of interest • How restrictions impact the domestic engineering profession • How restrictions impact the marketplace • How firms are positioned within larger global networks of engineering firms An engineering service trade dialogue can pinpoint restrictions in the domestic market and in export markets of interest. The engineering service dialogue creates a case for unilateral reform and negotiations at the bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels. If conducted rigorously, it can also create momentum for