Youth are writing types of skills programme they are interested in and SOHAY should support them
Bangladesh has experienced both social and cultural changes due to program of both government and NGOs in past decades. Things were very different for youth in the 1990s compared to now. Free access to information via the internet has changed the way we think and has helped to shape our ideas. How we utilize information has also changed drastically. According to the British Council survey in 2014, Bangladesh had the lowest employability among university graduates in South Asia; 47 out of 100. The number is staggeringly higher for women.
A successful approach will be to identify the skills that our youth are interested in and try to focus on giving them specialized support so that they can further hone these skills to be competitive in the market. For example, if someone is good at fashion designing, parents and well-wishers should encourage them to focus on being an entrepreneur or work in the fashion industry so that his or her full potential is realized.
As Bangladesh moves towards becoming a middle-income country, it has been rightly recognized that skills training on demand-driven trades is the key to greater economic growth. What we are missing among the youth is a positive “perception” towards skills development. An underprivileged youth does not aspire to become a technician when it is seen as a menial job. They also dream of becoming a graduate, to be part of the white-collar labor force! The challenge here is to change the mindset around skills training. Young people in Bangladesh should aspire to become practitioners who will drive the country’s economic engine.
More focus should be given on changing the perception of existing vocational training opportunities through nationwide awareness programs and advocacy. It should not be portrayed as an option for the less fortunate who can’t invest in education and, thus, opt for technical training. More students should be encouraged to think outside the box, having fewer academic degrees and more practical knowledge so that they can be highly skilled workers or entrepreneurs who create jobs—and do either of the two abroad.
Around thirty percentage of Bangladeshi people live below the international poverty line (US$1.25 per day). Training and skill development offers a way to address the needs of Bangladesh’s huge and expanding population by providing skills to enhance employability and reduce poverty by ensuring safe and decent work for all.
SOHAY can work on people mindset of people. SOHAY will work with the government to run a campaign so that youth are interested and see the technical education is the way forward. There are increasing demands of the global labor market, this is important to tap the demand.
Quality knowledge and skill are global demand; Bangladesh people can tap the requirement.
The most important is unskilled people access to all, including youth with low literacy and numeracy, child workers, women, and rural communities and persons with disabilities.