Creating a knowledge-based workforce

There are shortages of skilled and highly skilled workforce in Bangladesh, a fact confirmed by a large number of expatriates being employed in top positions of private businesses. The labour force working in agriculture, garment and knitwear industries, and those working abroad earning remittances is a mix of unskilled and semi-skilled personnel. Earnings from these sectors of the economy may be coming to a physical limit because of skill shortage. Similarly, technology transfer to Bangladesh has its limits at least in the high-tech product and service range due to lack of highly specialised knowledge workers. 

To achieve a target of middle income or even higher, it will be necessary to develop human resources that can create value added products and services through innovation and research. The fact that the potential contribution of well-educated human resource for economic development far outweighs that of other resources such as agriculture, mineral and petroleum has been demonstrated by several South-East Asian countries which, despite relying the most on their human resource, achieved the status of a first world economy within a matter of few decades. 

Creating a knowledge-based workforce will require careful planning for reform across the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors. The overall objective of planning should be to raise the quality of education. Quality education may be referred to having internationally recognisable standards in terms of curricula and extra-curricular learning, innovative teaching and learning processes, assessment and feedback, and student outcomes, including high ethical and moral values. 

To improve the quality of tertiary education system, we need to look at three basic objectives of education. We first need to prepare students in a domain of activity by imparting relevant knowledge, methods and skills to perform in real situations. Second, we should focus on scientific and industrial research. Finally, we should adapt to behaviour conforming to ethical standards and codes of practice. 

These basic objectives have broad implications on parameters such as curricula design, teaching and learning processes, assessment methodologies, student outcomes and research. Thus, they must conform to internationally approved standards by accreditation process, and must be continuously monitored to assure quality improvement. 

Quality assurance is basically a two-level validation process. The first level focuses on the internal activity of an institution to ensure that the education process achieves the educational objectives as defined by the mission of the institution. Specifically, quality assurance should ensure that the curricula are relevant and optimum to the needs of the country; the faculty profiles are satisfactory; the capability of the teaching and learning process is satisfactory; and there is sufficient evidence for achievement of student outcomes including ethical values.There should also be evidence of substantial faculty research output and collaboration with industry. Each university/institution of tertiary education should set up a quality assurance team, comprising of senior academics and administration. Among other things, one of the mandates of the team should be to adopt and execute the philosophy of continuous improvement of educational quality.

The second level validation process is to accredit an institution and/or its academic programmes by an independent and reputed accrediting agency. The validation process starts with an institution submitting a comprehensive self-assessment report to an accrediting authority for independent validation. The external validation process is fairly extensive and evidence based. It takes into account almost all activities of an institution and its programmes, including staff and student welfare.

Bangladeshi universities and institutions have their engineering and technology programmes accredited by the Institution of Engineers of Bangladesh (IEB). The Board of Accreditation in Engineering and Technological Education (BAETE) has been established recently by IEB to accredit engineering and technology programmes, and will work independently from IEB. This board represents Bangladesh in the Washington Accord as a provisional member with the possibility to becoming a full signatory in the future. The Washington Accord initiated in 1989 is an international accreditation agreement for recognising undergraduate engineering academic degrees of signatory countries, which include India, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, the US, the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. The agreement stipulates substantial equivalence of academic contents in programmes accredited by any of the signatory countries. Graduates of an accredited engineering programme are recognised by all signatory countries to practice engineering profession. Engineering programmes of countries with provisional status are not, however, recognised by any of the Washington Accord signatories. 

There is no rationale for the tertiary education sector not to opt for quality assurance except perhaps complacency. Some may argue that 'quality is costly', but it is a mere perception.One should consider the cost of inferior education.  In fact, quality assurance would improve efficiency and reduce operational and maintenance costs. With committed leadership in the top management, quality can be improved, utilising internal resources and savings from the maintenance fund needed for low quality education.

Accreditation can bring many benefits to universities, as accredited universities get recognition for quality education and have greater enrolment of top students. Students gain confidence about the standards of their education. Sponsors are assured of quality education, and would be willing to pay high tuition fees which translate into larger revenue for the institution. The nation will benefit from knowledgeable and skilled workforce with innovative and entrepreneurial qualities, and moral values. There will be better planning, better infrastructure development, and better services. General productivity level will improve, directly contributing to internal wealth creation and thus higher GDP.  Graduates of accredited programmes will find highly paid jobs abroad, thereby contributing to higher remittances.

Undoubtedly, there is potential for accelerated development through quality education, but several challenges remain, including the shortage of skilled and highly skilled workforce. We thus urge institutions and universities to establish internal quality assurance systems and opt for internationally recognisable accreditation of their academic programmes, especially in engineering and technology. Furthermore, to ensure quality assurance universities should undertake research on real issues in cooperation with industry and government agencies. 

The writers are former professor and pro-vice chancellor (academic) of PNG University of Technology, Lae, Papua Guinea, and a mechanical engineer and higher education consultant, respectively.