Special fund sought for IT firms to hire freshers

Speakers at a roundtable on Saturday said the government needs to set up a special fund to help IT companies under small and medium enterprises (SMEs) category to hire fresh graduates.

They also suggested measures to ensure coordination between academia, training experts and the government to reduce the skill gap in the sector.

They made the demands at a roundtable discussion titled “IT Skill Development: Challenges and Solutions” organised by the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) at BASIS Auditorium in Dhaka on Saturday.

Presided by BASIS President Russell T Ahmed, the programme was attended by University Grants Commission (UGC) member Prof Sazzad Hossain and ICT Division Director General Md Mostafa Kamal. Former BASIS President Fahim Mashroor was present as the keynote speaker.

In his keynote, AKM Fahim Masroor said that most IT companies demand experienced human resources. As the average size of the companies is small, they are not ready to train and employ new graduates.

He mentioned several solutions such as creating a special fund backed by government and development agencies to assist small IT companies to hire new graduates.

“Tax incentives may be provided to large IT companies to hire new graduates,” he also suggested.

Fahim Mashroor, also the founder and CEO of bdjobs.com, said commercial research and development labs could be established in all private universities and private organisations which will collaborate with IT companies.

Industry-focused short-term (1-3 months) training programmes, in partnership with IT companies, can be arranged for junior-level employees and fresh graduates, he said.

Speaking at the programme, Sazzad Hossain said, “Students in our country are talented enough, only coordination is needed. Universities, training experts and the government each have to do their part in coordination with each other. Only then we can get our desired result and get skilled human resources.”

“The Ministry of Education can play the biggest role in this regard. We should give opportunities to our talented youth. They all want to work but there is a gap somewhere. If we can find this gap and fill it, we hope to reach the desired goal,” he added.

Russell T Ahmed said, “Digitisation and automation will be hampered if skilled human resources are not developed for the booming IT sector and it will be difficult for Bangladesh to survive in the international market.”

“In such case, it will not be possible to achieve the desired export target,” he added.