Urgency of youth’s skill development cannot be overemphasised

YESTERDAY World Youth Skills Training Day was observed in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the world. The United Nations General Assembly declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day, to highlight the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship last year. The observance of the day has a tremendous significance on the youth population of the country, specially a third world country like Bangladesh. Our country is yet to create adequate job opportunities for its increasing number of youth who leave the homeland for foreign lands with an aim to work as migrant workers.

But the bulk of these workers who go to foreign countries are unskilled. Only a small number of them are semi-skilled, and even smaller is the number of the skilled workers. That is why we time and again have urged the government to give focus on developing generations of skilled youth with a forward looking vision so that the youth population can develop themselves which is another name for national development.

However, the theme for World Youth Skills Day 2023 is: Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future. It highlights the essential role that teachers, trainers and other educators play in providing skills for youth to transition to the labour market and to actively engage in their communities and societies. Since the quality of education is falling in Bangladesh, the theme has a tremendous significance in the country’s context. Over the decades, the number of institutions of general education, technical and vocational institutions has increased and the increase has failed to meet the burgeoning population of the country.

According to the recent census, the total population of Bangladesh stands at 169.8 million, and 27.96 per cent of them are young people, aged between 15 and 29 years. However, when it comes to women’s participation, a smaller number of women enroll in vocational and technical education. For example, data from the World Bank (2018) reveals that only 27 per cent of secondary students join the vocational stream. This section of the population must be in the focus of the government’s attention for a balanced development of Bangladesh society.