Project to impart need-based training to 0.5m youths

More than 0.5 million youths will be given new skills to help make them find jobs within the next three years, according to a government project.

As of June last, agreements were signed for imparting training over 400 thousand youths under the project styled 'Skills for Employment Investment Programme (SEIP)'.

The estimated cost of the project is US$ 270.25 million with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funding worth $200 million.

The remaining fund will come from the government of Bangladesh and industry associations.

Agreements were signed with different private associations and institutions to impart the training programmes.

Project officials said some 2,25325 young people were already enrolled under 37 different categories.

They said so far 142123 youths were certified under different trades with job placement rate over 70 per cent.

"We expect agreements for training of remaining 100 thousand people will be inked shortly," Md Khairul Islam, a specialist at the project told the FE.

Mr Islam said: "We're providing all types of trainings to the youths designed to produce a more employable workforce in the country."

He said industry regularly complains it cannot find workers with the skills they need to be competitive.

"We hope there will be no such complaint after the completion of our deadline in 2021," he added.

The project also included training programme for mid-to-higher level managerial trainings.

Project people said it has so far included four educational institutions--- Institute of Business Administration (IBA) under the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh University of Textiles, East West University and Brac University.

The curriculum has been designed keeping the industry requirements, under the title of executive development programme.

"Over 2000 will be trained up in a 9-month batch under the four educational institutions," Mr Islam said.

Employers at the clothing, textiles, leathers are hoping the government mission will help them get better work-force with need-based training.

Anowar Ul Alam Chowdhury Pervez, managing director at the Evince Group said that the initiative is supporting them adding: "We need more skilled labour forces to keep pace with the growing demands of the clothing industry.

"We still lack huge skilled labour forces. We also need mid-level management people to run our companies," Mr Parvez, also a former chief of the Bangladesh Garment Manufactures' and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said.

The SEIP is being implemented by the Finance Division.

The official date of commencement of the project was July 2014.

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