Graduates struggling to secure employment
Graduates are struggling found in the work market as the conventional education system will not equip students with the abilities industries demand, according to Rizwan Rahman, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Market (DCCI).
Bangladesh includes a labour force around 6.35 crore which keeps growing at 2.2 %, meaning that there are around 20 lakh new entrants each year.
However, 38.6 % of the graduates face unemployment, and it indicates a mismatch of expertise, explained Rahman at a webinar styled, "Industry-Academia Linkage: The New Frontier".
Industry-academia collaboration has emerged as a fresh methods to elevate the country's competitiveness with regards to developing a skilled workforce and invention ecosystem.
"As a result, the universities should collaborate with individual sector entities to convert our youth into qualified individual capital," Rahman said.
In order to do so, internationally accredited skills development training programmes ought to be placed, while research universities offering high-quality post-graduation facilities ought to be established.
Rahman suggested that incentives such as for example tax exemption ought to be provided to the individual sector to collaborate with universities for exploration and development.
He also known as for increasing public expenditure in education, exploration and skills development.
"We need to switch our mindset for better industry-academia collaboration," said Education Minister Dipu Moni.
She urged the private sector to purchase education for a sustainable and commercially viable exploration ecosystem.
"Universities shouldn't focus only in education and degrees as they have to provide required trainings," Moni said.
"You will find a gap between industry and academia, and reduce this gap, we are in need of mapping to recognize skill requirements."
Regardless of the devastating socio-economic impacts of Covid-19, the pandemic has generated various opportunities, and a tripartite collaboration among industry-academia and experts may help reap those benefits.
Kazi Shahidullah, chairman of the University Grants Commission; Md Sabur Khan, chairman of the board of trustees at Daffodil International University; Syed Nasim Manzur, taking care of director at Apex Footwear; Syed Ferhat Anwar, director of the Institute of Organization Administration at the University of Dhaka; Anisuzzaman Talukder, a professor at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology; and Tahmina Mostafa, a director of Meghna Group, had been present.
