The ongoing economic and political instability that started during the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the Russia-Ukraine war has caused a global economic slowdown. This has hugely affected Bangladesh, putting our economic stability under huge pressure. Moreover, multifarious issues have risen including a fall in the inflow of remittance in our country in recent times, a fall in foreign reserve, soaring inflation rates, a huge deficit in the current account balance of foreign transactions, increased price of industrial and essential consumer goods and a tumultuous foreign exchange rate.
Such economic slowdowns have a huge effect on businesses, and it ultimately results in a larger pool of unemployed individuals as companies start to lay off employees to cut costs. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there could be 3.6 million unemployed individuals in 2022, an increase of 500,000 from the previous year.
This is a crucial matter for a developing country like Bangladesh. Just when the country saw a significant rise in the number of startups and SMEs, this global economic crisis made it hard for them to sustain. On that note,Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bdjobs.com AKM Fahim Mashroor was interviewed for his valuable input.
Strategies for entrepreneurs: When asked about how entrepreneurs can cope with these drawbacks and strategies to take the least possible hit in such a time of crisis, Mr Mashroor said, "It basically varies from industry to industry. Primarily everyone should first focus on minimising costs, like marketing and advertising costs, so that they can efficiently use that budget when the market gets stable or better. Besides, they should also think about exploring some new markets rather than sticking to one single market. Apart from that, they should try to be efficient, and keep no room for any wastage."
He added, "SMEs and local businesses often try to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis by taking loans from banks. However, it is often found that when they apply to banks for a loan in times of crisis, they get denied due to a lack of proper documentation. So, they should focus on maintaining detailed documentation about their business from the get-go."
Decoding the problem of unemployed graduates: Recent reports and surveys suggest that we have a huge number of unemployed graduates. When asked about the reason for this scenario by the industrial leaders, most of them say that the graduates do not have the right skillset to excel in a particular field. This is a concerning issue and if not looked into properly, will have a bad impact on the national economy.
"The universities are not keeping their curriculum updated from time to time, which results in graduates falling short of having the proper knowledge or required skillset to sustain the current market," said Fahim.
"One of the main concerns here is the responsibility of workplace-related skill development of students has been imposed on the educational institutions. It is hard for educational institutions to update their curriculum regularly in accordance with the market demand," he shared.
"At the end of the day, a huge part of the workforce is required by industries and for that reason, they should have some responsibility in training the new entrants to the workforce. So, industries need to actively take initiative here and ensure the skill development of the new workforce. Financial assistance and allocation from the government are required in this case. And once an industry trains a person, they can hire him for the respective industry as he will become job fit, and it will be a worthy investment as well," he added.
Awareness about vocational education: Again, many young people in our country do not know about vocational or technical education or the job opportunities in this line of work. And even if they know about it, they do not opt for the jobs because either the job doesn't offer the expected salary and other benefits or due to social reasons concerning their status. So, inspiring them in this sector and creating more job opportunities might bring a revolution to the unemployment issue as well as contribute to the national economy.
When asked about it, Fahim Mashroor said, "I think universities should introduce compulsory vocational courses in their curriculum. For instance, a BBA graduate should know how a factory or industry runs its operations so that he/she can efficiently supervise a factory after graduation."
He added, "Another notable thing here is that graduates often sit idle when they fail to land their dream job. This is something that needs to be overturned. Even if a job's salary and benefits offerings are much lower than your expectations, you should still start working because it will add value to your resume. Big corporations or industries will check if you have any prior work experience. They will not look for the position you had or the salary you got, rather your practical experience of working in an organisation will give you an edge over other jobseekers, which most of the recent graduates fail to comprehend."
"Working in an organisation will make them team players, enhance their time-management and problem-solving skills, and develop more soft skills that are required to excel in a workplace. It is not necessary to view these jobs as permanent ones or for a long-term, rather they should think of it as a medium for their skill development or training programme," Fahim added.
Initiatives to be taken ahead: Fahim stated that unemployment has been a national issue for quite a long time. In times of global crisis that we are facing right now, this situation just keeps getting worse. These situations don't happen overnight, and the youth of our country needs to be prepared for such challenging times. A great part of our national development is held back just because we do not have a skilled workforce, rather we have a large pool of unemployed individuals. Just because their workforce has the required skills to swiftly work in an organisation or industry, Vietnam and other developing countries are getting preference as the desired location over our country when most global giant manufacturers are trying to shift and revamp their whole supply chain after the drawbacks from the pandemic.
This issue required a policy-level intervention and as so, the government has drafted National Employment Policy (NEP) 2022. But its effect will only be effective if the recommendations are jointly implemented by the government and the industries. Higher educational institutions must update their curriculum in a given period and unemployed individuals must actively take initiative to enhance their skillset with any opportunities they get to become job fit. Only a collective effort from all parties involved can solve this issue at hand and in turn, create a positive impact on national development as well as our economy, Fahim stressed.
The writer is a third-year BBA student at IBA, Dhaka University.
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