Graduates struggling to secure employment

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Graduates are struggling found in the work market as the traditional education system does not equip college students with the skills sectors demand, according to Rizwan Rahman, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Sector (DCCI).

Bangladesh includes a labour force of about 6.35 crore which keeps growing at 2.2 %, meaning that there remain 20 lakh new entrants each year.

However, 38.6 % of the graduates face unemployment, and this implies a mismatch of expertise, stated Rahman at a webinar styled, "Industry-Academia Linkage: The New Frontier".

Industry-academia collaboration provides emerged as a new methods to elevate the country's competitiveness with regards to creating a skilled workforce and innovation ecosystem.

"So, the universities should collaborate with personal 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 need to be established.

Rahman suggested that incentives such as tax exemption ought to be provided to the private sector to collaborate with universities for analysis and development.

He also called for increasing public expense in education, study and skills development.

"We need to change 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 study ecosystem.

"Universities shouldn't focus only on education and degrees because they have to provide required trainings," Moni said.

"You will find a gap between market and academia, and reduce this gap, we need mapping to recognize skill requirements."

Regardless of the devastating socio-economic impacts of Covid-19, the pandemic has generated many opportunities, and a tripartite collaboration among industry-academia and experts could help reap those benefits.

Kazi Shahidullah, chairman of the University Grants Commission; Md Sabur Khan, chairman of the panel of trustees at Daffodil International University; Syed Nasim Manzur, managing 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.

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