Skill Development Crucial For New Employment

Wares Ali Khan :
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many workers have lost their jobs in the country. Opportunities for new jobs have also declined due to the stagnancy in the country’s existent economic sectors centering on business, enterprise, trade, and commerce. Almost 2.2 million workers enter the job market in the country every year. Of these, nearly 7 lakh workers are deployed in earnings abroad. However, The Covid-19 induced unprecedented setbacks have brought a massive shock and shrinkage in the livelihoods of the hard-up and marginalized sections who work in the informal sectors. As a result, the unemployment rate in the country has proportionately escalated.
 According to the Report of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) published in 2019, the unemployment rate in Bangladesh is 4.99 percent. And the youth unemployment rate is 11.9 percent, which is more than two and a half times the national average. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), one in six persons in the world has experienced joblessness during the Covid-19 global pandemic. And one in four young individuals in Bangladesh has remained unemployed this time.
Requisite attention has not been paid to the creation of sustainable youth employment in the country’s existing policies, including the National Youth Policy-2017. Albeit, the policy calls for steps to render employment for the youth, there is no pragmatic plan that can be considered holistically congenial and compatible regarding net youth employment. In this perspective, we hope our think-tanks will incorporate a National Youth Development Policy intending to make the youth top-notch change-makers in the socio-economic context.
An all-inclusive and realistic action plan needs to be adopted to heighten the right set of skills among the youth population. It is also substantial to keep an eye on how the youth folk can become successful entrepreneurs. In this respect, a one-stop service has to be offered to the youth. To continue the tempo of our economic prosperity, the spirit of our youth must rightfully be utilized and have to be kept awake for the economic prosperity.
The state authorities have to work on the augmentation of life-based skills and the total empowerment of the youth. We might notice that many of the youth have sound knowledge. But very often they cannot represent themselves befittingly because of the lack of a life-oriented skill set. For the prior reason, they lag in many cases including the job market. Today’s young people have unlimited potential and they aspire to have the time-requisite new skill set. So, the country needs to arrange ample opportunities for them to be fostered and bloomed properly.
 Over and above, the continuous influx of internal migration to an urban sphere must be prevented. It is necessary to make our youth self-reliant by providing loans on easy terms, and training them in various productive domains. By receiving job-oriented training, along with monetary support the unemployed youth could be able to generate employment for others, getting themselves employed first. Thus, it is necessary to motivate unemployed youth to be engaged in agriculture, agro-related productions, services, small business enterprises, start-ups, and entrepreneurial ventures.  
 The GOs and NGOs have to work in a collaborative and coordinated manner for the gross development of the youth. The government has to work to ensure the participation of youth in every development project runs in the country. If we think of being a prosperous state, surely we have to work with the youth. If they are at the forefront of all economic activities in the country, then the country will move faster and the economy will boom better.
 If Bangladesh is to benefit satisfactorily from its indomitable youth population to meet the socio-economic goals, budget allocations have to augment for catering education and training, skill development, and expertise enhancement. Not the customary increments in amount, rather the budgetary allocation must appropriately be spent in the right sector. Hence, policymakers deliberately need to adopt that strategic thinking and scenario remaking to approach a long-term future vision. We aspire to dream that heading towards the resilient ventures grounding on the limitless potentials; our promising youth segment will bring the best for the country in the days ahead.

 (Mr. Khan is an academic).