BYLC Career Fair Connecting new graduates to employers

With the theme, 'Gateway to A Successful Career', the Office of Professional Development (OPD) of Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) hosted their third career fair on February 7, 2019. The fair brought together nearly 300 students and 26 national and international organisations under one roof with the support of the Aga Khan Foundation Bangladesh and the Rizwan Adatia Foundation.

The pursuit for skilled graduates seems to be a ceaseless quest for employers. The event created a platform where recruiters and job seekers interacted with each other and bridged the gap between the supply and demand sides of skills. Employers informed the students about different job posts, their future prospects, required skills for the jobs, and existing recruitment systems to take on graduates.

The State Minister of the Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid was present as the chief guest at the inauguration. He said, "BYLC is doing a remarkable job of instilling critical thinking and leadership skills in young people, and creating economic opportunities by facilitating important connections between employers and job-seekers." In addition, Ejaj Ahmad, President of BYLC, mentioned how the OPD works to improve the livelihoods of the youth by providing professional skills development training, placement opportunities and online learning services.

More than 70 HR professionals were present at the venue to assess students. They took spot interviews to evaluate students' subjective knowledge, cognitive and humane qualities, and professional skills. It also featured two panel discussion sessions where some of the market experts of the country talked about reducing youth unemployment rate and developing institutional capacity to produce a better labour force.

With a view to make information about employment opportunities more available to fresh graduates, the OPD of BYLC invited several leading organisations of the country. The participating organisations included Banglalink, Renata Limited, Shohoz, PRAN-RFL, JAAGO Foundation, Mutual Trust Bank Limited, Dhaka Bank Limited, Aamra Technologies Limited, Green Delta Insurance, BRAC, KAZI IT, ActionAid Bangladesh, Sajida Foundation, Grameenphone, Amann Bangladesh, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD, Goethe-Institute Bangladesh, Mohammadi Group, LankaBangla Finance, Cosmos Group, UNB, mPower Social Enterprises Limited and Reckitt Benckiser Bangladesh Limited.