Govt trying to increase skilled workforce

The government is planning to connect all privately run training institutes to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) to increase the number of skilled workers, said Imran Ahmad, state minister for the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry. 

The state minister made the statement during a press conference on the ministry's labour market plans for 2020 at Probashi Kallyan Bhaban in the capital on Sunday. 

"The demand for a skilled workforce is increasing. If anyone learns the Japanese language, Japan will take that worker and pay him a fat salary, otherwise they will not," he said. 

Imran Ahmad also said that the present day international job market demands that workers fulfill certain requirements; hence, the country needs to increase the number of trained workers. 

"If we cannot send a skilled workforce abroad, we will fail," he said, adding that BMET and privately run training institutes will have to work together to achieve the goal. 

"Our plan is to connect BMET and privately-run institutes by this year, and provide globally recognised certification to jobseekers," the state minister said. 

The state minister also said that if 100 people can be trained at a time now, then if government and privately-run training centres worked together, they could provide technical training to as many as 300-400 people. 

Also at the press conference, Md Salim Reza, secretary to the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry said that 5,83,768 jobseekers were trained at state-run training institutes in 2019.

"Currently 41 more TTCs are under construction in 41 upazilas as part of a government project to build 60 TTCs across 60 upazilas," he told reporters. 

The government has sent workers to some new countries including Cambodia, Seychelles, Romania, Hungary, Poland, China and Herzegovina; and is planning to send skilled workers to other new countries this year as well, he said. 

"The Government has also initiated the opening of the closed labour market in the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia," Salim Reza added.  

Meanwhile, in 2019, as many as 7.01 lakh workers were sent abroad, including 1.11 lakh females; of the workers, 44% were skilled and 20% were semi-skilled, the secretary said. These migrant workers sent remittance worth $18 billion in 2019. 

On the other hand, the bodies of 3,658 dead migrant workers arrived back in 2019.

"In 2020, the number of migrant workers may hit 7.50 lakh and the remittance $20 billion. The Malaysian labour market may also open for Bangladesh this year," the state minister hoped.