District-based industries stressed for employment generation

Experts have called authorities concerned for focusing on district-based industries to create employment opportunities and develop a skilled workforce through incentives.

They made the remark at a dialogue titled "Reforms in Vocational Education, Employability, and Market Readiness Agenda on Adolescent and Young Women," organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) held yesterday at a hotel in the capital.

In his address as special guest, Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the Workers' Rights Commission, said there is a need for a district-based model to reduce unemployment and achieve economic self-sufficiency.

He noted that the economies of districts differ, and local traditional industries should be incentivised to create jobs while developing a skilled workforce accordingly.

He called for collaboration between the skill development organisation and the skill development authority to achieve these objectives.

At the event, Chief Guest Nasreen Afroz, executive chairman (secretary) of the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA), said MoUs are being signed with universities to develop skilled graduates through NSDA.

She assured that once universities produce skilled students, there will be no issue of unemployed graduates, and efforts are being made to address this concern.

Rasheda K Choudhury, member of the CPD Board of Trustees and Executive Director of CAMPE presided over the event while the keynote presentation was given by Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of CPD.

The research focused on adolescents and young women in Kishoreganj district.

Moazzem highlighted that Bangladesh's labour market is constantly changing, with women, especially adolescent girls and young women, facing the most challenges.

He stressed the need to create an inclusive labour market and explained that the research focused on Kishoreganj, a haor region.

The study found that 34% of young women were job seekers, 17% were employed, and 54% were outside the workforce. The aim was to explore how to make the labour market gender-responsive.

Rasheda K Choudhury also noted that education should inspire students beyond traditional learning.

She shared the example of a girl from Tetulia, inspired by her uncle from abroad to study robotics, and pointed out that Bangladesh's education system lacks opportunities to explore robotics at the primary level.