Huge enthusiasm marked a day-long job fair held in the city on Saturday aiming to create employment opportunities for the persons with disabilities in different information technology (IT) companies.
Some 54 companies participated in the eighth edition of such event organised by the Bangladesh Compute Council (BCC) in collaboration with the Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID) at the NGO Affairs Bureau office premises in the city's Agargaon area.
ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak inaugurated the event as the chief guest, a statement said.
Senior Secretary of the ICT Division N M Zeaul Alam, Director General of the NGO Affairs Bureau SK Md Moniruzzaman and Executive Director of the CSID Khandaker Jahurul Alam were present as special guests at the programme.
In his speech, Mr Palak said technology should be used to eliminate discrimination between the able-bodied, the physically challenged and the especially able people.
He called for better employment of educated disabled persons by making the best use of technology and said the fair would create a bridge between job givers and job aspirants.
He said that among trained disabled or especially able persons who want to become entrepreneurs, there is an opportunity to provide capital from Tk50,000 to Tk 1.0 million as seed money to make themselves as young entrepreneurs.
Ahead of the fair, about 500 persons with disabilities from all over the country submitted their CVs online.
Apart from this, persons with disabilities also got the opportunity to submit their CVs or resumes by attending the fair directly. The participating companies conducted interviews to recruit those who have IT skills.
The next recruitment process will be started by short-listing the disabled candidates for different posts including data entry, graphics design, animation, web design, digital marketing, call center agent, programming, etc. ICT-based organisations belonging to different trade bodies or associations participated in the fair. Notable among these are BASIS, e-CAB, BACCO, ISPAB, BCS, CCOAB apart from various organisations in the ICT industry and some NGOs involved in disability work listed in the NGO Bureau.
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