Skills training essential for youth development: speakers

Speakers at a roundtable yesterday said the country’s youths  should be given skills training, which is required to develop their  career considering future challenges.

They said the country’s existing  formal education system lacks many aspects of skill development needed  for the present day job scenario.

IPDC Finance and The Daily Star  jointly organised the discussion on “Life Skills for Progress and  Prosperity: The Youth’s Narrative” at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka.

Tasmiah T Rahman, head of programme of skills development at Brac, said that in Bangladesh, parents’ financial situation determine which school a child will go to, which is unfortunate.

Sourav Saha of Jaago  Foundation’s Youth Development Programme said in their training programme they had found that youths lacked vision due to financial limitation. However, they could overcome such shortcomings through consultation, he added.

The government should look into this growing frustration among youths who have limited opportunities, he added.

Sakib Bin Rashid, chief instructor of 10 Minute School, said learning process  should be fun because students often show lack of concentration in  apparently uninteresting subjects.

G Sumdany Don, chief  inspirational officer of Don Sumdany Facilitation and Consultancy, said  besides students, teachers should be provided with training as well to  ensure quality learning process.

Mominul Islam, managing director  and chief executive officer of IPDC Finance, said what students in Bangladesh miss is the “willingness to learn.”

“We don’t want to learn. We want to pass,” he said.

The issue should be addressed at the earliest stage, starting with  kindergarten-aged children, Mominul said, adding most students at the time of their enrolment at universities “forget how to learn and  only concentrate on having a good CGPA.”

Rounding up the  discussion, Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, said  youths should learn from incidents in their daily lives to augment their  strength and build confidence to achieve future goals.

“Pick  those incidents that re-emphasise, re-energise and reiterate your  strengths,” he said, adding, “You accumulate them, and then you realise  that you are quite a strong person.”

Mahfuz Anam said the present world has two types of people -- talkers and doers.

“Unfortunately, most role models that you’ll have in Bangladesh are talkers,” he said. “Unless the talk is backed by hard work, those are just empty words.”

Ayman Sadiq, chief  everything officer, 10 Minute School; Suraya Jahan, head of programmes,  English Education and Skills, British Council, and Sohel Iqbal, director  of education at US Embassy spoke at the discussion among others.