Home ›› 23 Oct 2022 ›› Special Supplement
Despite huge demographic dividend, Bangladesh’s industries are facing a big crisis of skilled manpower casting a negative impact on the overall socio-economy of the country.
Bangladesh’s economy is rapidly flourishing overcoming many challenges with the private sector playing the vital role thanks to diversification.
Local manufacturers are exporting diversified products to many countries after meeting domestic demand.
The country is also preparing 100 economic zones to boost the economy creating a large market with growing population.
Trades and economic activities in Bangladesh have undergone a sea change thanks to the technological advancement and changing lifestyle of people as well prompting employers to hire skilled employees from local and international sources.
Despite having a huge number of graduates the country can’t meet the job market demand as the education system has failed to equip them for it resulting in fall in production.
On the other hand, the country’s youths are also losing their productivity and valuable time of their lives.
Every year in Bangladesh, more than 20 lakh people enter job market. But the number of new jobs is insufficient. That is why a large number of them remain unemployed.
Bangladesh has a working-age population of around 65 percent. The working age population here is aged between 15 and 59 years which is between 15 and 64 globally. The population of Bangladesh reached 165.16 million in 2022.
A research of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) conducted between October and November in 2021 found that industry didn’t get skilled graduates as per requirement. As much as 46 percent private employers find it difficult to fill job vacancies.
It also found that the employers considered three most important factors to hire employees for their companies such as soft skills (83 percent), hard skills (65pc) and work experience (51pc).
But, one-fourth of Bangladesh’s total population is in the 15-29 age group. The country’s current youth population is 45.9 million. But Bangladesh cannot take the opportunity utilizing them to meet job demand in industries, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS)’s population census-2022.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) report-2022, the number of students of public, private and international universities was 12, 33529 in 2021.
Of them, 9, 01509 students were from 50 public universities. Besides, a total 17, 92312 students appeared in SSC examination in 2021 while 11, 15605 students participated in HSC examination the same year. The existing students do not get quality education to meet the demand of various sectors.
Bangladesh’s economy would be more vibrant and can reduce unemployment if the country focuses on collaborative research and strengthening the relationship between industry and academia.
Graduated but is not cut out for job!
Over 55 percent of the youth with university degrees don’t get any jobs within 6 months to 2 years of passing their exams. Among them, 38.5 percent remains jobless for at least six months, media reports say. According to Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) survey-2021, 66 percent or almost two-thirds of the graduates from National University remain unemployed.
Besides, 21 percent of students find jobs after obtaining an Honor’s or Master’s degrees and three percent become entrepreneurs. BIDS’s another report says 34 percent graduates are unemployed after securing first class in their Bachelor and Master’s Degree examinations.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS)-2022, the number of 15 to 24-year-old youths in the country is over 3.15 crore. Meanwhile, BIDS’s report published on 28 August 2022 found that the average skill gap between 10 industrial sectors is approximately 30 percent and the gap widens as the technological competence of the sectors rises.
The sectors included agro-food processing, construction, electronics, hospitality and tourism, information and communication technology (ICT), leather and footwear, light engineering, nursing, readymade garment (RMG) and ship building.
The report highlighted that there was a greater skill gap between highly paid positions like managers and professionals.
As the skill gap is higher for professionals and technical people, training programmes are required to gradually shift towards technologically advanced businesses.
However, despite having higher qualifications young workers are employed in low-skilled jobs. The gender gap and difference between rural and urban areas is also significant.
As a result, bleak prospect of labour market has forced many Bangladeshi youths to go abroad. Around 37 percent of Bangladeshis between 15 and 24 years of old expressed their willingness to permanently leave the country.
Even though, the government’s eighth five-year plan set a target of creating about 11.3 million jobs the question how it can gain the trust of the youths of the country still remains unanswered.
Expressing concerned over skill gap, Senior Research Associate of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Syed Yusuf Saadat said unemployment rate is higher among educated youths making it seem that education is not empowering youth with the right skill required. During his research, he noticed that most employers of different companies expect high skill from graduates like operational skills, computer skills, English language skills, technical skills, teamwork and leadership skills, time management and problem solving skills.
Foreigners are hired to meet demand for skilled employees
As current education system can’t meet domestic job demand Bangladesh has to hire high officials from different countries to operate government projects and private industries.
It’s claimed that many foreigners enter Bangladesh with travel visas but afterwards change their visas and get into high-paid jobs. About 10 lakh foreigners are working in various organizations. Most of them are of officer level. Each of their salaries is more than the total salary of five Bangladeshi officials. That is, one foreign official has occupied the place of five domestic job seekers, media reports say.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) study-2020 put the number of foreign nationals working illegally to at least 2.5 lakh. And, they are illegally smuggling around Tk26, 000 crore abroad every year. According to a CPD study, about 5 lakh Indians are working in Bangladesh. They are taking 3.76 billion dollars to their country annually. Bangladesh is the country’s fifth source of remittances.
Why the government does not scrutinize the important matter and bring them under accountability? Why there is no actual data on the foreigners and how much money they send to their countries from Bangladesh?
A strong collaboration with the private-sector and investment in improving the public-sector educational institutes is needed so that a greater number of students from low-income households may acquire quality education.
There is a need for research to identify which skills are in high demand in the present labour market. Such research will enlighten job-seekers to prepare accordingly and also encourage policymakers to allocate resources towards sharpening market relevant skills. Now Bangladesh should lay emphasis on soft skills, advanced ICT, service industry and 4IR skills to respond to rising market demand.
The country needs proper policy support from the government and a stronger supply chain to tackle challenges centring product development, research, and use of smart technology in manufacturing sectors.
The writer is a journalist based in Dhaka. He can be contacted at [email protected]
