Published on 12:00 AM, September 13, 2018

Brac fair offers job opportunities to 35 individuals

Brac Skills Development Programme on Tuesday organised a daylong job fair in Savar for the participants of its Empowering the Readymade Garment Workers Living in Urban Slums of Dhaka (ERMG) project.

At the show, 10 garment factories provided jobs to 35 people, mostly women, who had earlier been trained on the operation of sewing machine in garment factories.

The ERMG project works for the skills development and empowerment of the garment workers, especially women, said Rezvina Parvin, manager of the urban development programme.

“Under the project, each of our centres provides hands-on two-month training to 40 people on sewing machine operation along with theoretical knowledge.”

Under the project, Brac has so far provided jobs in the garment sector to over 500 people.

Thirty-five-old Rehena Khatun, one of the new recruits, said she has got a job as a swing operator at a garment factory of Standard Group.

“None was there to give a job to an unskilled person like me. The training that Brac provided me free of cost saved my life,” the divorced woman hailing from Savar's Katlapur area said.

“Now I can bear the educational expenses of my 11-year-old son and earn a living for my family also.”

Shyamala Devnath, another one of the new recruits and a mother to a four-year-old son, said she had been struggling to run a family of four members with the income of her husband.

“I am glad that I got the job just after completing the training provided by Brac.”

Brac aims at creating a skilled labour force for the garment sector, said Mazharul Islam, manager of the skills development programme.

Brac is working as a platform for the employers and jobseekers, to create employment opportunities for the unskilled workers and raising productivity of garment factories, Islam said.

“We had earlier provided jobs in our factory to 30 people who were trained by Brac. All of them are doing very good,” said SM Asraful Islam, deputy general manager of Standard Group. “It is a good initiative of Brac.”