Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said the government has given utmost importance to vocational education as the world needs skilled manpower.

The PM said this while inaugurating a three-day national conference of IDEB and international conference on “Skills Readiness for Achieving SDGs and Adopting IR 4.0” at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Dhaka.

IDEB and the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC) in Manila, Philippines jointly organised the event in association with the Ministry of Education, Directorate of Technical Education, and Bangladesh Technical Education Board as co-partners.

Sheikh Hasina said it is not only Bangladesh, the whole world will need skilled manpower in the coming days. “Those who’ll go abroad will go with technical knowhow, and for that we’ve reformed our education system giving priority to vocational training.”

She also mentioned that the government is giving assistance to private institutions that are providing technical trainings.

The prime minister said the world is competitive and the government wants to develop the manpower of the country in such a way so that they can compete anywhere in the world.

Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni; Deputy Minister for Education Barrister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury; Director General, CPSC and Co-Chairman, Conference Steering Committee Ramhari Lamichhane; and IDEB General Secretary Eng M Shamshur Rahman also spoke at the programme, held with IDEB and Chairman of the Conference Steering Committee AKMA Hamid in the chair.