Bangladesh with a population of 160 million faces an enormous challenge in providing jobs to millions of unemployed youths. Every year about two million youths enter the job market of which many remain unemployed and under employed. Things would have been much worse if a considerable number of them (annually about half a million) had not found the opportunity to work overseas. At present, the overseas job market is shrinking in Middle Eastern countries due to drop in oil price which has resulted in the slowing down of workers remittance. On the other hand, ageing population in European countries and Japan (due to low birth rate) has created shortage of young people whereas Bangladesh with its increasing number of young people has the potential to enjoy demographic dividend for next three decades.
Bangladesh can take advantage of the properly educated and skilled young generation to accelerate its economic development, otherwise the unskilled and unemployed youths may cause chaos and even destabilise the development efforts. Although thousands of university graduates remain unemployed (due to inadequate knowledge and lack of proper skills), many private companies employ foreign professionals and technicians for their work (draining the country's hard earned foreign currency to the tune of US$ four to five billion annually). As such, there is a strong need to prepare a Human Resources Development Strategy (HRDS) for Bangladesh which will ensure employment to the unemployed youth, and reduce the dependence on foreign professionals.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: The education system in Bangladesh is a legacy of the colonial past mainly focusing on general education; currently only about 14 per cent of primary education is focused on technical education. One of the predominant features for the success of the Far Eastern countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China) is the abundance of technically qualified people. It may be mentioned here that the education system of these countries are geared towards blue collar jobs focusing more on technical education (nearly seventy per cent). The government has lately realised this problem and is giving more attention to technical education.
MIGRATION OPPORTUNITIES: During the last three centuries, millions of people from China, Japan and India have migrated to Europe, Australia, North America and Africa as job seekers. Currently, there are one hundred twenty million people of Italian origin in the world out of which about sixty million people stay in Italy and other sixty million of them live in different countries, having migrated over the years. Bangladeshi people have started migrating to developed countries after liberation. Although there is no accurate figure about the number of Bangladeshi immigrants settled abroad, the rough estimate is about two and half million which is about one and half per cent of the total population. The low immigration rate is due to lack of knowledge about immigration opportunities, and shortage of skilled manpower. Some countries in Asia are well geared in providing skilled manpower to developed countries. For example, seventy per cent of graduate nurses from the Philippines get migration opportunities in Europe, UK, USA and Australia. In contrast, some prominent private hospitals in Dhaka have started recruiting foreign nurses. There is an urgent need to identify the skills required for immigrants in the host countries and develop skilled manpower for migration.
HUMAN RESOURCES NEED-ASSESSMENT: Accurate job need assessment is critical for the preparation of long term human resources development plan. Assessment is required for both public and private sectors. Public sector jobs are mainly related to administration sector, social sector (health and education), financial sector, agriculture sector, industrial sector and service sector (transportation and public utilities); Private sector jobs are mainly related to business, service sector and industries. Bangladesh is currently enjoying annual GDP growth rate of about seven per cent which requires large number of skilled workers and professionals for both private and public sectors. Private sector and different government departments need to prepare short term and long term need assessments for their workers and professionals including the types and levels of skills required.
TRAINING NEED ASSESSMENT (TNA): Training need assessment is required for existing staff in both public and private sectors. Under various development partner funding, some institutional development studies including training need assessment have been carried out for some of the agencies, similarly major private industrial sector (garments, textiles etc) may have carried out the training need assessment. All these information need to be collated and stored centrally. In addition agencies need to be identified where no TNA has been carried out so far, and the TNA should be carried out on priority basis.
TRAINING INSTITUTIONS: The number of university graduates (in general subjects) is abundant in supply whereas technicians are in short supply. Currently, several development partners (World Bank, UNIDO, UNDP, ILO) and bilateral donors are supporting Bangladesh through skill development projects. These initiatives should be harnessed strategically by carrying out detailed analysis of market based need assessment. In addition to current demand of industries related to textile, garments, pharmaceutical, tannery and construction sector, new sectors are also opening up. In the near future, ship-building, light engineering, agro processing, electronics, hotel and health service will require large pool of skilled workers, and specialised professionals. The adequacy of the existing institutions including their curricula should be reviewed, and short and long term plans should be initiated to improve the situation. The government should form higher education development council to monitor curricula, faculty and quality of education in relation to market demand.
PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE: In the present globalised world, English language plays a major role. Bangladeshi workers in the Middle East earn much less compared to their counterparts from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines due to lack of proficiency in English. Within Bangladesh, the prospect for call centers and IT outsourcing is being seriously hampered due to lack of language skills. Many Industry owners in Bangladesh employ managers and CEOs from other South Asian countries who are more conversant in communicating with foreign buyers because of their English language skills. It is high time the government paid special attention to develop English language skills for workers and university graduates to reduce the dependence on foreign workers in the country.
PRIORITY PROGRAMME: Currently, there is a huge shortage of Chartered Accountants in the country and these positions are filled by accountants from Sri Lanka. Large number of textile engineering positions are currently manned by Indians. The government has taken up programmes to establish several high tech IT parks in the country for which large number of IT professionals will also be required. The government should start urgent training programme to develop human resources in these sectors to reduce dependence on foreign professionals. Increasing proficiency in English language should also be covered under the priority programme.
MADRASAH EDUCATION: Every year a large number of students (more than two hundred thousand at SSC equivalent level and about eighty thousand at HSC equivalent level) pass out from Madrasahs. Job opportunity of these students are very much limited (mainly in religious establishments). As the Madrasah education is not mainstreamed in the country's job market, majority of the Madrasah educated youths are unemployed or underemployed. Since the Madrasah educated people are proficient in Arabic (both spoken and writing), they can be meaningfully equipped for jobs (through enhanced computer literacy and office management training) for the Middle Eastern countries.
ISSUES RELATED TO OVERSEAS WORKERS: Overseas workers from Bangladesh mainly originate from five regions-- Chittagong, Comilla, Dhaka, Sylhet and Noakhali. The socio-economic condition of the people of these areas is much better compared to that in other parts of the country. The government should give priority in recruiting more people from the unprivileged areas to bring equity among the regions. Due to poor skill mix of workers (thirty per cent skilled and seventy per cent unskilled), the average per capita annual remittance of a Bangladeshi worker is about USD 2000 compared to USD 10000 for a Filipino worker. Migration cost of Bangladeshi workers is much higher compared to that of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, which needs to be rationalised. Cheating by manpower agents is also a common phenomenon in Bangladesh due to which many job seekers have lost their fortune. Bangladeshi workers from the Middle Eastern countries often venture for illegal migration by boarding overloaded and unsafe boats to parts of Europe risking their lives. Awareness building and effective monitoring will help the job seekers from losing huge sums of money and risking their lives.
DATABASE FOR HUMAN RESOURCE: Comprehensive database of existing human resources is a prerequisite for planning of human resources development. There is the need to create a centralised data base for professionals and technicians. Data can be collected from different professional bodies (Bangladesh Medical association, Institution of Engineers, institute of Chartered Accountants, banks, industry associations etc), universities, polytechnics, technical schools and so on. It would be difficult to assess the total number of skilled workers since there are many skilled workers in Bangladesh like masons, carpenters, electricians who do not join formal education and hence do not possess any certificate or licence. It is high time some arrangements were made to register them in some form (after proper verification) which will help them in seeking overseas jobs. Information can also be gathered from embassies in countries where Bangladeshi workers are predominant (Middle East and South East Asia).There is also a strong need to create a database of foreign workers working in Bangladesh. This will help in identifying the skill gaps which will be needed to be addressed to reduce dependence on foreign workers in future. Unless the ever-increasing dependence on foreign workers is reduced, drainage of foreign currency will continue. INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS: Since Human Resources Development is the key to the sustainable development for Bangladesh, it is crucially important that the existing Ministry of Labour and Manpower is transformed into Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) with new mandate and objectives. The proposed ministry may focus on three main objectives: (i) in-country job creation, (ii) overseas job creation, and (iii) opportunities for migration. The MHRD may form Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) consisting of representatives from public and private sectors, representatives from universities, and providers of technical education. This council will draft a Human Resources Development Strategy and deliberate on it with the stakeholders. The MHRD will finalise the strategy with feedback from stakeholders and prepare short and long term action plans.
FOCUS ON SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES (SEZ): The government has planned for one hundred SEZs to be established by public and private sectors by the year 2030. Some of the SEZs have already been established and some are in the process. The SEZs will require large number of workers, there is a strong need to estimate the number of workers and their required skills so that adequate training institutions can be established for developing skilled workforce.
CONCLUSION: The issues described above emphasises the importance of human resources development strategy for Bangladesh. As mentioned, the strategy should put thrust on increased technical education, job-oriented higher education, human resources data base, streamlining madrasah education and rendering effective training. Establishment of Human Resources Development Ministry and formation of a Human Resources Development Council are prerequisites for the development of the strategy. The government and private sector have already taken some steps for the development of human resources. The Strategy will help consolidate the ongoing efforts in a well integrated manner.
The writer has worked as Infrastructure Development Specialist in an international development organisation for several countries of Asia including Bangladesh.
