Linking jobs with skills
The government plans to launch Employment Exchange Centres on a pilot basis in December to directly connect job seekers with employers, create a nationwide labour-market database and help address the country’s persistent skills and employment gaps.
The initiative will initially be introduced in Dhaka before being gradually expanded to all divisions and the country’s 64 districts, with centres eventually planned at district and upazila levels.
Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury disclosed the plan at a press briefing at the ministry’s conference room on Sunday.
The centres will maintain databases of job seekers and employers, with information on candidates collected through job and career fairs at colleges and universities, while factories and industrial establishments will provide data on their demand for workers and staff.
The databases, to be maintained both online and offline, are expected to facilitate direct communication between employers and potential employees.
Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Md Abdur Rahman Tarafder told The New Nation that the ministry would first assess the feasibility of the initiative through a pilot project in a particular district or upazila before moving towards wider implementation.
“We plan to develop software to maintain a database containing information on both job seekers and employers. The database will be enriched by collecting resumes through job fairs,” he said.
“The Employment Exchange Centre will establish a connection between job seekers and employers,” Tarafder added.
The initiative comes amid continuing uncertainty over the actual scale of unemployment in Bangladesh.
According to the latest Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data, 2.66 million people are unemployed, with the unemployment rate at 4.63 per cent.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, however, indicates that 36 out of every 100 educated young people in Bangladesh are unemployed.
Asked how the government would reconcile the differences between the BBS and IMF figures, Tarafder said the Employment Exchange was not intended to be a survey.
He said such discrepancies would gradually become less significant once the proposed database was established and more comprehensive information on job seekers became available.
The employment challenge is particularly acute among young people and women.
World Bank Vice-President for South Asia Johannes Zutt recently noted that 14 million young people had entered Bangladesh’s labour market over the past decade, while only 8.7 million jobs had been created.
This left a substantial portion of employable young people without jobs, with young women facing additional barriers to entering the labour market.
Tarafder said the Employment Exchange programme was intended to help bridge this gap by connecting job seekers with available opportunities.
He said the government was also encouraging people with opportunities to learn foreign languages to prepare for employment in countries such as Japan, South Korea and destinations in the Middle East and Europe. Relevant ministries would provide necessary assistance where required, he added.
Skills training linked to jobs
Officials said the initiative would also address the needs of less-educated job seekers by identifying their skills gaps and referring them to suitable training centres.
Tarafder said the ministry would not directly provide jobs but would act as a bridge between employers and job seekers.
He said educated unemployed people would be encouraged to undertake training that would improve their chances of finding jobs at home or abroad in line with market demand.
Following directives from Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, and based on manpower requirements identified by the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, the government also plans to recommend appropriate training programmes to facilitate overseas employment, he said.
Prime Minister’s Office Adviser and spokesperson Mahdi Amin said the election manifesto had pledged to establish employment exchanges and organise career fairs nationwide.
He said the initiative was intended to create labour-market entry opportunities not only for educated people but also for job seekers outside the mainstream education system.
Plans are also underway to link youth skills development with the employment exchange system to make better use of Bangladesh’s demographic dividend, Mahdi said.
Skills requirements in different sectors of the modern labour market will be identified, with training arranged through partnerships with skills-development institutions under various ministries.
Framework under preparation
Ministry sources said a committee was working to finalise the framework for establishing the Employment Exchange.
The committee has already held four meetings with stakeholders and incorporated their feedback.
Officials said job seekers lacking the necessary skills would be referred to appropriate training centres, with the primary objective of improving their employability.
At the briefing, Tarafder also outlined recent progress on the Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act, elimination of child labour, the Minimum Wage Board and the Bangladesh Labour Rules.
Officials attending the briefing included Inspector General of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments Md Farhad Siddique, Additional Secretary Md Abdur Rahim Khan and Director General of the Department of Labour Md Abdus Samad Al Azad.
The government sees the Employment Exchange system as a broader mechanism to make recruitment more transparent and merit-based while helping employers find workers with the skills they require.
