The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Sameer Sattar has said foreign workers take home around $10 billion in salary annually as they are working in management of the industrial sector due to lack of skilled labour in the country.
Speaking at a seminar titled "Industry-Academia Linkage: Employability of Graduates in the Changing Global Context" organised by the DCCI on Saturday, Sameer Sattar said, "Many foreigners work in management of the country's industrial sector. They are taking home $8-$10 billion in salary annually. Lack of quality and skilled labour in the country is to be blamed for this."
The DCCI president said, there is no alternative to building an industry-academia linkage to create a skilled and industry-oriented workforce, and for implementing Smart Bangladesh, meeting challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
Speaking as chief guest, Education Minister Dipu Moni emphasised connecting the industry with academia. She said, "Academicians may question why they need to learn by working in the industry. While people of the industry who know the business may ask why they should go to teachers. You can't clap with one hand. Both sides will need to come forward. The government is engaged round the clock to facilitate this."
She further said a new curriculum is being taught in primary education.
"I hope that when these students complete their studies at the university level and enter the labour market, this skill gap will no longer exist. But to fill the gap that exists now, students need to be taught soft skills at the university level," she added.
She recommended universities to emphasise career counselling, develop an academic master plan, besides bringing in soft skills, reskilling and up-skilling, team-work development, technology adaptation, changing mindset, and demand mapping.
"The government has formed the National Skills Development Authority. There are 29 ministries working to create skilled manpower. The work is underway to train skilled workers as per the demand," she said.
Stressing for commercialisation of research and development initiatives, she said diversification of education is more important, it will not be the right decision to attract our students only to the medical or engineering education system.
Rather, she said students should come into nursing, modern farming, freelancing and other jobs since these sectors have also created huge demand at present. In this regard, she urged to change mindset as no occupation is superior to others.
Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha, professor of Economics, University of Dhaka and Research Director, SANEM presented the keynote paper. She highlighted that one of the challenges of the labour market of Bangladesh is absence of strong linkage between the supply and demand sides- primarily between the academia and the industry. To address the skills mismatch, strong Industry-Academia linkage is needed, she said. By the year 2027 analytical thinking, creative thinking, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data will have more demand. In future technology will create more jobs, she added.
