Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Training is designed aiming at bringing socio-economic development and contributing the nation building activities, specially the poverty alleviation program, employment creation and human resource development activities will come to a reality by training and its proper implementation.
Training will be used as one of the important tools to implement the national vision as reflected in the various policies, plans and programs of the government. It will be used for promotion of administrative efficiency, higher productivity and optimal utilization of human resources for the greater welfare of the citizens. Having realized the importance of training as an effective means of human resource development the government has declared its firm commitment to gearing up and orienting training activities in order to enhance administrative and management capacity, augment productivity in all sectors, alleviate poverty, reduce unemployment and achieve sustainable and balanced development having regard to the goals and objectives of development plans of the government.
Technical training refers to specific vocational training, meaning the hard skills that employees need to perform their daily job tasks and that managers can clearly measure in terms of proficiency. While the term might make us think of the IT training industry and skills such as computer programming, data analysis and software development, technical training also encompasses the teaching of basic business skills such as sales, business writing, customer service, math and project management. Employees may learn such hard skills through a university degree program, on-the-job training or even experience on the job. Technical training contrasts with soft skills training, which instead focuses on teaching interpersonal skills that can help employees excel regardless of their job role. Soft skills training would include teaching topics such as decision making, problem solving, teamwork, time management and communication skills. Such skills are harder for managers to measure than technical skills, although similar training methods such as formal courses, coaching and experience can help develop soft skills.
To achieve the SDGs, ICT needs to be combined with innovative policies, services, and solutions. It can be a powerful means of implementation in many significant ways: Accelerate upscaling services in health, education, financial services, smart agriculture, and low-carbon energy systems. Illustrating the potential of ICT for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals which were declared by the United Nations in 2015 as binding for all nations of our planet addressing both developing and developed countries. ICT must play a significant role if the SDGs should be achieved as projected in 2030. The paper gives an overview of some of the existing efforts in this area and is written as an appeal to all professionals, scientists and IT-professional and their organization to take a holistic approach for all ICT-activities and projects to always include and monitor the effects of their work on the SDGs. The impacts of ICT on sustainability are twofold. On the one hand there might be negative effects on sustainability such as the generation of electronic waste. On the other hand ICT is definitely an enabler to more efficient resource usage, education and business operations which is critical success factor for achieving the SDGs.
Bangladesh now has been graduated to a developing country. It is no more a least developed country. We are in the race to become a developed nation by 2041. The economy of our country is not self-dependent or self-sufficient. We cannot properly use our natural resources for shortage of our domestic capital. In this regard, remittance is playing a vital role for our country. Remittance has already changed our livelihoods as well as our economic growth. Moreover, remittance has an effective role on rural infrastructural development. The migrant workers, who send money from the foreign countries, are accelerating economic growth and development. Thus, remittance has been turned into the second largest financial inflow to our country. Indeed, remittances sent by immigrants increase the income of their families but overall, they help the country to grow. Whatever we say, the extent to which these remittances can contribute to the economic development of the country depends on the transparency, performance and overall economic environment of the internal institutions. That will depend on the proper leadership and the application of the principles laid down in the proper use of the money received from the remittance, how much we will be able to develop utilising remittance.
Remittances have both direct and indirect impacts on micro and macro level economics. The direct contributions of remittances to national income have grown rapidly in the past decade. Remittances have contributed to increasing foreign exchange reserve of Bangladesh which is now stands at over USD 21 billion, 7 times higher than the foreign exchange reserve of the year 2005. We have a large unemployed labor force in our country. Unemployment is a chronic problem in Bangladesh and it is possible to solve this problem to a great extent by exporting manpower.
Our overseas employees are earning remittance for which the economy of the country is still running well. But most of the employees are unskilled. They are merely laborers and cleaners. If skilled manpower is created the avenue of overseas employment will be widely opened up. So we can say only technical in ICT training can only play a significant role to convert a skilled manpower. When the overseas employee will be engaged as skilled workforce, the remittance will be higher. So for Nation’s interest, the concerned department must focus to the technical and ICT training for ensuring the skilled manpower, sustainable and feasible overseas employment.
(Dr. Forqan is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP)
