Build support councils for educational, industrial institutions to create skilled manpower: Experts

Educational and industrial institute support councils should be set up to create skilled manpower and reduce educated unemployment, and enhance communication between the two sectors, said experts during a seminar on Tuesday.

They made the observation during a briefing on the "Cooperation between educational and industrial institutions for the development of SME entrepreneurs in Bangladesh" organised by the SME Foundation and the German development organisation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) yesterday at the Agargaon Tourism Bhaban.

Secretary of Technical and Madrasah Education Division Md Kamal Hossain attended the event as chief guest. SME Foundation Chairperson Dr Masudur Rahman, Chairman of Bangladesh Science and Industrial Research Council (BCSIR) Prof Dr Md Aftab Ali Shaikh and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Barrister Md Sameer Sattar also attended, among others.

Managing Director of SME Foundation Md Mofizur Rahman delivered the welcome address while Professor of Economics Department of Dhaka University Muhammad Shahadat Hussain Siddiqui presented the main article in the event.

According to the article, Bangladesh currently has a labour force of 63.5 million, which is growing at a rate of 2.2% per year.

However, according to the Bangladesh Development Research Institute (BIDS), 66% of the unemployed in the country have graduated.

On the other hand, a World Bank survey said 46% of employers do not find the required skills in job seekers and 69% of employers said there is a wide shortage of job seekers for technical and managerial positions, said the article.

Highlighting the lack of necessary support between educational and industrial institutions as one of the reasons for this problem, the article stated low investment in university research fields as an issue.

According to the 2020 calculations of the University Management Commission, the average annual expenditure of 142 public and private universities is only Tk1.26 crore. However, the top 10 private universities spend only Tk43 crore on research annually against the annual expenditure of Tk101 crore on the research sector of the top 10 government universities.

As a result, Bangladesh ranks 116th and India ranks 48th among 131 countries in the Global Innovation Index 2020. In the Global Knowledge Index 2021, Bangladesh ranks 120th out of 154 countries, where the lowest rating among the 7 subjects was research as it scored only 19.2 out of 100 points.

According to the BIDS research in 2022, the shortage of skills is glaring in Bangladesh's labour force across 15 sectors – agro-food processing, electronics, construction, light engineering, ICT, ready-made garments, tourism, shipbuilding, leather and footwear, nursing, furniture, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, jute and plastics. However, only 3.65% of the labour force receives training opportunities for skill development annually.

In this regard, the article mentions the lack of support between educational and industrial institutions in at least 8 areas – including university curriculum not being in line with the needs of industrial institutions; apprentices in industrial establishments not getting right working environment; industry sector skills of university teachers are low; absence of required courses and assessment procedures of the university.

Among other issues, the article included skills, work and qualifications crisis; lack of coordination between educational and industrial institutions; unrealistic expectations of students towards the industry; and non-involvement of industrial owners in curriculum development of educational institutions.

In order to solve these problems, the speakers at the event suggested forming a university-industrial institution higher education support council on an urgent basis in Bangladesh based on Malaysia's existing model.

SME entrepreneurs of the country, representatives of banks and financial institutions, researchers, economists, representatives of various ministries participated in the event.