Overhaul country’s skills development sector
Bangladesh is still lagging in creating enough technically-skilled workforce. To improve this situation, the country needs to transform its skills-development sector, speakers said at a roundtable yesterday.
The sector needs to set the curriculum based on industry needs, and the trainers should be equipped with modern teaching methods, they said.
South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (Sanem), along with Swisscontact and The Daily Star, organised the discussion on "The Current Trends in Skills Development Sector of Bangladesh: Challenges and Possibilities" at a city hotel.
Abdul Karim, executive director of Ucep Bangladesh, said the country needs skilled workforce not only for poverty alleviation and economic development, but also to successfully graduate from LDC to middle-income country status.
"We have a long way to go," he said, adding that a skilled workforce will help the nation overcome hurdles quickly.
In Australia, 60 percent of the population are technically-qualified graduates, but it is only 14 percent in Bangladesh. In Germany, 73 percent of people have received technical education, and in Japan, 66 percent, he said.
Sanem Research Director Prof Sayema Haque Bidisha suggested upgrading and modernising the country's technical and vocational education and training (TVET) curriculum.
She also recommended strengthening collaboration between TVET institutions and the private sector, and improving the quality of trainers. She said a Sanem study has identified lack of technical skills as key challenges in sectors like ICT, light engineering and pharmaceuticals.
Economic Research Group Executive Director Sajjad Zohir said it is important to bring to the forefront what the skill-development sector is like in Bangladesh and who are the players and regulators in it.
Ligaya Dumaoang, skills-development specialist at International Labour Organisation, said at present, TVET is considered as a "second class" course in Bangladesh.
To get rid of such a notion, a strategy should be in place to motivate youths to enter into the programme, she said.
Sameer Sattar, president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the country needs to invest more on skills-development programmes.
Farooq Ahmed, secretary general and CEO of Bangladesh Employers' Federation, said the total ecosystem of the skills-development programme should be transformed.
Prof Atonu Rabbani of James P Grant School of Public Health of Brac University, Swisscontact Bangladesh Country Director Mujibul Hasan, and Chevron Bangladesh Corporate Affairs Director Imrul Kabir, among others, spoke at the event.
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