Are we ready for future jobs?

The education system in Bangladesh, particularly at the tertiary level, faces significant challenges in providing demand-driven, high-quality education, given the outdated curriculum. That is further exacerbated by the impending job market demands in the coming years, as pointed out by educationalists and experts.

Many universities lack a sufficient number of academic disciplines and have limited seat capacity, limiting their ability to cater to the most sought-after subjects in the next decade. Besides, only 2% of the education budget is allocated to research in higher education — a paltry investment that hinders the country's readiness for the fourth industrial revolution, which is expected to create a plethora of lucrative job opportunities.

One key solution is fostering stronger collaboration between industry and academia, a practice that has yet to gain widespread acceptance. Bangladeshi CEOs have identified several roles that are poised to gain prominence in the next decade. These include business and product development, data analysis, industrial engineering, robotics process automation and product design, among others. 

According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, occupations with the highest projected percent change of employment between 2022-2032 in the US are wind turbine service technicians, nurse practitioners, solar photovoltaic installers, statisticians, physical therapist assistants, information security analysts, home health and personal care aides, medical and health services managers, data scientists and mathematical science occupations, and physician's assistants.

The impact of most technologies on jobs is expected to be a net positive over the next five years, according to the Future of Jobs Report 2023 by the World Economic Forum. Big data analytics, climate change and environmental management technologies, and encryption and cybersecurity are expected to be the biggest drivers of job growth, the report says. 

"With the demand of time, the appeal for these jobs is increasing on a global scale. Their scope is set to expand in the near future, particularly within the IT sector, where a substantial demand is snowballing. While India and other countries currently dominate the IT sector, it's important to acknowledge that we are still in the early stages," noted Professor Dr Mohammad Ali Zinnah of the Institute of Education and Research (IER) at Dhaka University.

He went on to emphasise, "Bangladesh's IT sector holds great potential, provided we align our educational efforts with international demand. The key question is whether our curriculum is equipped to prepare graduates with the knowledge and skills required to meet this demand."

According to Ali Zinnah, Bangladesh has many science and technology universities, but it is crucial to revamp their curriculum and teaching methods to align with international requirements, moving beyond the theoretical approach and incorporating elements from foreign curricula.

Furthermore, he pointed out, "There is a promising opportunity to foster entrepreneurship by integrating agro-based technology. Agricultural education may have already started heading in this direction, but there are even more opportunities, possibilities, and initiatives that should be explored."

However, according to Ershadul Haque, CEO of prominent IT institution Riseup Labs, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will be in high demand.

"All the industries are focusing on automation and digital transformation. They are trying to automate their process using technologies to increase productivity and revenue," said Ershadul.

According to him, students should choose a technology, engage in various training programs, gain hands-on experience, seek guidance from experts, stay updated with global advancements, maintain a strong focus on that technology, and analyze various real-world cases related to the technology. This approach will prepare them to meet the global demand in the coming five to ten years.

As of now, Dhaka University is the only institution offering an undergraduate degree program in Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering. However, a new program is in the pipeline at Atish Dipankar Science and Technology, a private university.

Dhaka University currently has a limited capacity to admit only 25 students at the undergraduate level each year, which falls short of the national demand for this field, as observed by the faculty members of the Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering department.

A joint study conducted by the government's a2i project and the International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests that around 5.38 million jobs in Bangladesh are at risk in five key sectors until 2041 due to the increasing automation in industries and the services sector. These sectors include garments, furniture, agro-processing, tourism, and leather.

"[With technology] our progress is a bit slow. While our curriculum excels in software, the real challenge, in my view, lies in hardware," explained Dr Shamim Ahmed Deowan, associate professor in the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering at DU.

He continued, "Having the necessary hardware facilitates software development, but the reverse isn't true. Regrettably, the interest among our young learners appears to be waning."

The professor pointed out the root of the issue, stating, "One reason for this is that when conducting theses, projects, or research, software allows for modelling, simulation, and relatively predictable outputs. There is less uncertainty and a certain degree of comfort in handling software-based tasks, even if the efficiency may not reach the optimal level." 

He continued "However, when similar work is attempted with hardware, starting from raw materials and proceeding through modelling, simulation, and prototyping to the tangible realisation, it often encounters various roadblocks. Moreover, sometimes certain required materials are not readily available within our country."

The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) in a study found that the rate of employment is higher at 44% among private university graduates than public university graduates at 32%.

The difference could possibly be explained by the fact that private universities generally make quicker updates to their curricula to meet changing market needs than public universities. 

"This is also borne by the information that  (a) more male graduates of private universities are found to be self-employed than public universities, and (b) although the majority of the employed graduates in the sample serve the multinational sector,  private university graduates get more multinational sector jobs than public university graduates," according to a BIDS study conducted in 2019.

Inadequate research funding hinders innovation, despite the undeniable significance of high-quality research for growth and progress. Unfortunately, there remains a glaring shortfall in financial support for academics pursuing research.

For the academic year 2022–23, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has apportioned a mere Tk150 crore (1.5%) of the total budget of Tk10,000 crore, which caters to 51 public universities encompassing over 15,000 teachers.

Even more disheartening is the University of Dhaka's allocation for research in its annual budget for the 2023–2024 financial year, unveiled on June 21.

With a total outlay of Tk9.14 billion, the university has earmarked only Tk155 million, accounting for a meagre 1.64% dedicated to research. This stands in stark contrast to the institution's budget for the previous fiscal year, 2022–2023, where the same paltry amount was set aside from a total budget of Tk9.22 billion, equivalent to 1.63% allocated for research.

Notably, Bangladesh's dismal ranking of 120th out of 154 countries in the Global Knowledge Index 2021 can be attributed to its meagre investments in research. 

The country's poorest performance was observed in the research, development, and innovation sector among the seven areas considered in the index. Scoring a mere 19.2 out of 100 in this category, the country's performance remained consistently low compared to the previous year.