Business Desk :
A seminar titled ‘Skills Development for Inclusive Growth in Bangladesh’ was organized by National Skills Development Authority (NSDA) on October 4.
The seminar was held at the Multipurpose Hall of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), with a view to achieving the economic growth of Bangladesh by accelerating the skills development activities and promoting skills to the youth and the wider community.
Principal Secretary to the honourable Prime Minister, Dr Ahmad Kaikaus was present as chief guest in the seminar, according to a press release.
Md Nurul Amin, member (Admin and Finance), NSDA delivered the welcome speech and the key paper was presented by Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury (Parvez), president at Bangladesh Chamber of Industries.
The Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology Professor Md Habibur Rahman was present as a key discussant.
Prof Dr Ahmed Sayem from the department of Industrial and Production Engineering at SUST and Prof Dr Muhammad Shahadat Hossain Siddiquee from the department of Economics at Dhaka University shed light on the presentation by providing their expert knowledge.
The seminar was chaired by Dulal Krishna Saha, executive chairman (Secretary) of the National Skills Development Authority.
The seminar was attended by secretaries of various Ministries/Divisions, director generals of departments, officials of different levels of the government, development partners, representatives of Industry Skills Councils and people involved in skills development.
Those who could not attend the event directly joined online. The event was broadcast live on Facebook.
In his key presentation, Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury mentioned that there are approximately 169 million people living in Bangladesh out of whom 70% are employable but currently the unemployment rate is nearly 12.3%.
It has been forecasted that 60 million people will live in the age quartile of 18-35 by 2030. He mentioned the necessity of making them skilled to meet the demand of the national and international markets. Business leaders should come forward and work hand-in-hand in formulating and implementing policies regarding skills development which in turn will help to achieve economic growth.
Chief discussant Professor Md Habibur Rahman said that there is no alternative to increase the productivity of the workers in order to sustain the growth rate including survival in the competitive world.
According to him, advanced technology and skilled manpower are required to increase productivity. At present, about 22 lakh youths are being added to the labour market in Bangladesh every year. So, now is the real-time to take advantage of Demographic Dividends.
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The chief guest Ahmad Kaikaus said, “There is no alternative to implementing the government’s vision 2021, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, becoming a developed country by 2041 and building skilled manpower to implement the Delta Plan-2100.”
“The country’s economic prosperity will be facilitated by tackling global challenges through the creation of skilled manpower.”
He further mentioned that due to the Corona epidemic, a section of the youth has been deprived of the opportunity to receive training for a long time.
At this unusual time, diversity has also been created in the field of profession. During the Corona period, people have become largely digital platform-dependent.
The amount of income has increased through freelancing. As a result, it has become necessary to formulate a plan considering the social and professional changes, especially in the post-Corona period.
To this end, it is important to take necessary steps to increase the effectiveness of conventional training courses in skills development as well as to formulate standard and training curricula keeping in view the modern and future technology.
In his speech, the Chair said: “Vision-21 is now real. The Hon’ble Prime Minister has shown us the dream of building a better Bangladesh. In order to realize that dream, it is essential to make the working population efficient according to the needs of the labour market.”
He further said that the picture of skills development in our country is not very promising or satisfactory.
According to the Labor Force Survey 2016-2017, 85.1% of the labour force is involved in the informal sector and 39.9% of them have no formal education.
On the other hand, 29.7% of the working population is not involved in any form of education, labour or organization (NEET).
So it is a big challenge for us to build a large informal sector as well as to skill a large number of low educated working people.
