'Technically skilled people will boost country's economic growth'
70% of the AEOSIB-SEIP trained persons got jobs in different industries and shipyards at home.
Captain Habibur Rahman, chief coordinator of the Association of Export-Oriented Shipbuilding Industries of Bangladesh (AEOSIB) with SEIP, has said a large amount of Bangladesh's huge population is unemployed and those who are engaged in different sectors are not skilled.
"Therefore, the government initiative to create skilled people, mainly technically skilled, will help boost the economic growth of Bangladesh," he said at a seminar on "Shipbuilding Training Program A Project To Produce Skilled Manpower" organised by the Nautical Institute in the port city on Saturday.
A total of 17,458 people were trained in the three phases of the AEOSIB-SEIP training programme till 15 June this year. Of them, 70 % got jobs in different industries and shipyards at home and 209 abroad.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
According to the seminar sources, the training project started in January 2016 and 14 training institutes and shipyards provided the training in phase-1. Subsequently, phase-2 was completed in 2021 with 25 training institutes and shipyards. Now phase-3 is going on.
According to the Chief Coordinator, each trainee draws a minimum wage of over Tk12,000 with other benefits. A total of 922 females got training and of which 482 are employed.
The trained persons, who are employed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Qatar, Oman, Singapore, Malaysia, and around 20 foreign ships, are drawing minimum wages over Tk40,000, he added.
Shipyards, industries-related personnel, and shipping-related signatories, who attended the seminar, praised the outcome of the result focused on the presentation.
Skills for Employment Investment Program (SEIP) is an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded programme for skill development. All training costs and stipends are covered by ADB and the finance ministry.
