UNB, Dhaka :British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Alison Blake on Thursday said the skill agenda is tremendously important for Bangladesh, as it seeks to keep pace with countries like China and India in the global garment trade and construction industry.”With a growing, young population, the country has a great opportunity to drive up productivity and improve the skills of its workforce,” she said. The British High Commissioner was addressing the launching ceremony of a project titled ‘Sudokkho’.The project designs and facilitates private-sector led training for more than 110,000 people from poor and marginalised groups across Bangladesh. “That’s why Sudokkho is a crucial project and why the British government, through UK aid, is very proud to be its lead funder,” said the High Commissioner.Sudokkho, previously known as the Skills and Employment Programme in Bangladesh, is a five-year programme co-financed by UK aid through the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).Palladium International is implementing Sudokkho in partnership with Swisscontact and the British Council. The total implementation budget is £21.63 million (approx. US $32 million). Charge d’ Affaires, Switzerland Embassy in Dhaka, Beate K Elsaesser said every year around 2.5 million people enter the labour market in Bangladesh, most of whom get no opportunity to acquire skills required for productive and decent work either in Bangladesh or abroad.Switzerland provides a substantial contribution to skill development in Bangladesh to help those people, Elsaesser said.
