The government and private sector companies must ensure sufficient skill development training for the country’s growing human resources, speakers at a seminar said today.

They stressed the need for ensuring sufficient skills training as the country’s workforce is expected to reach 76 million by 2025, the discussants said at Brac’s head office in Dhaka.

“Up to two million people are entering the workforce every year but the majority of them lacks proper educational and occupational skills training,” they added.

To speed up the country’s pace to a middle-income country and achieve the sustainable development goal for promoting "decent work for all", there is no alternative to arranging technical, vocational and technological skills training for the youths, the discussants mentioned.

There is no alternative to arranging technical, vocational and technological skills development training for the youths, they say.

The youth unemployment rate is nine percent and underemployment rate is 20 percent, they said.

Around 80 percent of the workforce is employed by the informal sectors. Of them, 95 percent is youth between 18 and 24 years which is considered the most productive group in any economy, said Joydeep Sinha Roy, senior manager of Brac Skills Development Programme, a project of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (Brac).

Unfortunately, these youths, who work mainly as apprentice, are child labour and get almost no remuneration, he claimed.

Informal sectors employ around 80 percent of the total workforce. Of them, 95 percent is youth between 18 and 24 years which is considered the most productive group in any economy. But these youths, who work as mainly apprentice, are child labour and get almost no remuneration: Joydeep Sinha Roy, senior manager of Brac Skills Development Programme.

Brac has trained up 18,900 people in 135 upazilas of 43 districts since 2012, Joydeep said adding that 95 percent of them got employed after graduation.

In another presentation, Brac research team claimed that adolescent girls and boys can earn six times higher after receiving skills development training. Besides, child marriage also tends to reduce by 62 percent as such training boosts their awareness and self-confidence.

Brac has trained up 18,900 people in 135 upazilas of 43 districts since 2012, Joydeep says

Mikail Shipar, secretary of the labour and employment ministry, said “We are trying to bring the entire programme of skill development under one umbrella. For this, we’ve taken an initiative led by the honourable prime minister to form Skill Development Authority in the next 2-3 months”.