Private sector, govt, academia should join hands to develop human capital: Mannan

Planning Minister MA Mannan today said that the private sector, government and academia should join hands to develop human capital in the country.

The planning minister was addressing as the chief guest at the unveiling of the Labour Market Studies for Skills for Employment Investment Programme conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) held at a city hotel.

He said that the government was working on education to make it demand driven.

The minister also said that there was no conflict between development and good governance.

"Both development and good governance are necessary but I will say development should be the first priority than governance," Mannan said.

Speaking on the occasion, BIDS Director General Dr Binayak Sen said that skill was not a constraint for Bangladesh in achieving economic growth exaltation as there were many scope for the country to go forward with low skills through RMG sector, agriculture and expatriate workers.

"Now skills in Bangladesh are graduating to a higher level and I think the availability of higher skill can be a binding constraint for Bangladesh for next one decade. And it is one of the impressive messages of the study," Binayak said.

Planning commission member Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian said that coordination among the corporate culture, corporate governance and the government policy was important to reap the benefits of demographic dividend.

Dhaka University economics department professor Sayema Haque Bidisha said that skill training would not bring required results without ensuring quality education in all levels.

She suggested conducting another study on how to establish synergy between skill development policy and industrial policy.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said that the government should adopt a policy to train unemployed educated youths in the country to tap the immense potential of employment at elderly care facilities abroad.

The study findings said average skill gap in 10 industrial sectors is about 30 per cent and the gap increases with the level of technological sophistication of the sectors.

The report suggests that training programs were needed to gradually move towards technologically sophisticated industries as the skill gap was higher for the professionals and technical persons.

SEIP project of the finance ministry has commissioned BIDS to conduct a study of the labor market on skill demand, supply and mismatch.

Kazi Iqbal, senior research fellow of BIDS presented the findings on 10 sectors including agro processing, health care, hospitality and tourism, RMG and textile, constructions, leather, light engineering, shipbuilding and electronics.

Study found that the share of workers with training in 10 sectors in a year was 1.35 per cent which was lower than the national average of 3.65 per cent.

Citing the present scenario of the readymade garment sector, the study said that female workers were more proficient than male workers in female dominant industries and skill gap was also found to be higher for senior level technical positions.

The study covered 117 agro processing enterprises with 41,546 employees and found a total export to output ratio per enterprise around 3 per cent.

Study report said that higher skill gaps exist for higher paid jobs like managers and professionals.

The study revealed that 53.74 per cent of surveyed RMG factories have been facing skill gaps in general.

In terms of categories, skill gaps faced by enterprises are as follows: lockstitch machine operator (74.65 per cent firms), flatlock machine operator (72.31 per cent firms), overlock machine operator (66.99 per cent firms), printing machine operator (66.67 per cent firms), quality inspector (64.91 per cent firms), chain stitch machine operator (63.48 per cent firms), embroidery machine operator (62.50 per cent firms), iron man/woman (60.3 per cent firms), quality controller (57.23 per cent firms) and feed of the arm machine operator (56.64 per cent firms).

Evidence from service sector like tourism and hotels suggested that soft skills can be taught. Hence it should be a part of the training programme.

Massive investment in skill development is required to sustain higher growth, the study recommended.

It said that alignment of education and skill development policies with industrial policy was important to shorten the skill gap.