For many firms today, finding highly skilled talent has been difficult. The demand for specific skillsets and expertise in data analytics, programming, and engineering has risen tremendously. Unfortunately, however, domestic supply of these workers has not. This has convinced many companies that recruiting foreign talent is the way to go. But which countries are the best sources of skilled workers, and what are the best foreign universities? Without this information up front, hiring and outsourcing efforts can waste valuable time and resources. These are key pieces of the puzzle when looking to hire new talent.
(What are five things companies look for when hiring new talent? Find out in this Bold story.)
Fortunately, there are several hotspots when it comes to recruiting foreign talent. Currently, top regions include Mexico, India, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe. Not only do these areas offer large remote workforce pools but they also boast some of the best foreign universities. In addition, they also offer many other attractive features whether you’re hiring abroad or outsourcing business processes. With this in mind, the following breaks down the benefits of each of these regions and lists their top-rated schools. Having these insights up front can help greatly in recruiting foreign talent a company needs.
India – An Outsourcing Hotspot for Decades
For many years, India was the preferred locale for recruiting foreign talent, especially in areas like customer services. Low salaries and low cost of living were naturally attractive to firms in their talent acquisition efforts. Likewise, as an English-speaking nation, language challenges were not very significant. But things have changed quite a bit since then and for the better. The country has an excellent state-of-the-art IT infrastructure and tremendous skilled technical talent. A big reason it has so much to offer relates to its educational systems. In fact, India is now recognized for some of the best foreign universities in the world. Here are a few that deserve recognition if you find a candidate who matches your talent needs.
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research – Mumbai, India
- Indian Institute of Science – Bangalore, India
- Indian Institute of Technology of Bombay – Mumbai, India
- Indian Institute of Technology of Madras – Chennai, India
- University of Delhi – New Delhi, India
Eastern Europe – A Leader in Foreign Talent
According to some reports, Europe alone is home to 60% of all outsourced talent related to business processes. Notably, a sizable portion of these workers come from nations within Eastern Europe. Estonia is known as the “Silicon Valley” of the region, and Poland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic are notable as well. Recruiting foreign talent in tech and engineering is therefore easy from these areas. Plus, nearly all university graduates are fluent in English. The region’s robust, affordable and specialized educational system is a big reason such talent is in abundance. Understanding this, here are a few of the best foreign universities in Eastern Europe today.
- Charles University – Prague, Czech republic
- Jagiellonian University – Krakow, Poland
- University of Tartu – Tartu, Estonia
- University of Warsaw – Warsaw, Poland
- American University in Bulgaria – Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
The Philippines – Small But Powerful
Compared to the land mass of India and Eastern Europe, the Philippines is an unlikely source of the best foreign talent. But it now supplies roughly 20% of all business process outsourcing in the world today. The cost of human resource salaries is approximately half of what they are domestically. Likewise, English is the official language of the country, and it has adopted many western cultural traditions. Most impressive, however, is its advanced education system, which has been mirrored after American universities. The Philippines graduates over 450,000 university students per year. As such, recruiting foreign talent from the Philippines is something worth considering. The following are some top-rated universities in the Philippines today.
- Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Manila, Philippines
- University of Santo Tomas – Manila, Philippines
- University of the Philippines Los Baros – Los Baros, Philippines
- St Louis University – Baguio City, Philippines
- University of San Carlos – Cebu City, Philippines
Mexico – Recruiting Foreign Talent Close to Home
In the last decade, Mexico’s government has invested heavily in its infrastructure and in its educational systems. The result has led to it rapidly becoming a key destination for those recruiting foreign talent. The country has 38 overall IT clusters and a solid IT infrastructure with three-quarters of the population having hi-speed Internet. Likewise, out of every 100 workers, 65 are now considered highly skilled. A big part of this shift has occurred because Mexico now has some of the best foreign universities. The country also shares similar time zones with the U.S., and most people are bilingual in Spanish and English. For these reasons, recruiters and outsourcers find Mexico attractive these days. That’s especially true of applicants from the following universities.
- National Autonomous University of Mexico – Mexico City, Mexico
- Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education – Monterrey, Mexico
- National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico – Mexico City, Mexico
- University of Guadalajara – Guadalajara, Mexico
- The Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon – Monterrey, Mexico

The Advantages of Recruiting Foreign Talent
When it comes to recruiting foreign talent, studies involving companies who outsourced enjoyed some major advantages. On average, outsourcing boosted quality of services by 58% and reduced costs by 44%. These benefits did not come at the expense of other areas either. Recent surveys also stated that user experience improved by 38 % on average, and client growth expanded 31%. With many regions now having some of the best foreign universities, the talent pool is rapidly growing. That is why many companies are broadening their searches or considering outsourcing as domestic talent pools shrink.
Assessing if a potential hire came from one of the best foreign universities is only one part of due diligence. Other important tasks include performing overall background checks and determining if an individual is a good fit. Because many countries vary in their privacy laws and policies, many firms are assigning these activities to third-party screening services. Like business HR departments, they too examine education and experience when recruiting foreign talent. In both cases, it’s important to know the type of training a candidate may have received. And if they attended of the schools on the lists above, it’s likely they’re well qualified for the job.
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