Fund needed to train newbies at small IT firms
The government needs to create a special fund to help information technology companies falling under the small and medium enterprise (SME) category hire fresh graduates and ease a manpower shortage, experts said yesterday.
Once a small or medium-sized IT company hires and trains a fresh graduate, the latter tend to switch jobs for a higher pay, said AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer of bdjobs.com and AjkerDeal.
"So, typically small companies remain hesitant to hire fresh graduates," he said, adding that there should be a fund to cover 50 per cent of the salary for a year of a fresh graduate.
He was delivering a keynote at a roundtable on "IT Skill Development: Challenges & Solutions" organised by the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).
"Most companies demand readily employable 'experienced' resources. Because the average size of companies is small, they are not ready to train fresh graduates and make them employable as it costs them a lot," he added.
He suggested that the BASIS arrange industry-focused short term, one to three-month training programmes in partnership with member companies for junior level employees and fresh graduates.
"In this case, a fund is needed, supported by the government and development agencies, aiming to train at least 50,000 students yearly," he added.
There are a lot of fresh IT graduates but there is also a lack of industry experience, said Raisul Kabir, CEO of software firm Brainstation-23.
"So, we should be prepared the students in a way so that they will be experienced by the time they complete graduation," he said.
For that, students should work on establishing startups and be involved with other IT jobs instead of becoming private tutors during their graduation period, he added.
The demand for human resources has been increasing as the local and export market for IT from Bangladesh is expanding, said Russell T Ahmed, president of the BASIS.
"We have a number of university and government programmes for developing the IT skills. But we struggle to hire the right people for the industry," he added.
Fahim Ahmed, CEO of Pathao, moderated the roundtable.
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