Skills for the international labour market: Bangladesh country report
English
Bilateral organizations
The development agencies of many countries make skills development a pillar of their Official Development Assistance – from the perspective of education systems, employment promotion, poverty reduction, and private sector development. Documentation of their experience, evaluations and impact assessments, mission statements, and other knowledge products are made available through the Global KSP.
Governments
Governments hold a wealth of knowledge on skills development, and are increasingly realizing the value of learning from each others’ experiences. Their policy documents, programme evaluations, and research findings contain their experience and ideas on how to better link skills to employment
ILO
The International Labour Organization is the tripartite U.N. agency that promotes Decent Work through employment, social security, labour standards and social dialogue. Its work on skills development is guided by the conceptual framework on Skills to improve productivity, employment growth, and development agreed in 2008 by representatives of Governments, Employers’ Associations and Workers’ Associations. Research, policy advice, and pilot projects and technical cooperation programmes to apply good practices in different circumstances across its 185 member States aims to boost the employability of workers, the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises, and the inclusiveness of economic growth. The ILO Secretariat in offices in 40 countries works with Ministries of Labour, employers’ organizations, and trade unions to integrate skills development into national and sector development strategies in order to better meet current labour market needs and to prepare for the jobs of the future; to expand access to employment-related training so that youth, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are better able to acquire skills and secure productive and decent work; and to improve the ability of public employment services to provide career guidance, maintain labour exchange services, and deliver active labour market programmes.For more information regarding the ILO’s work on skills and employability go to: http://www.ilo.org/skills/lang--en/index.htm; for ILO/Cinterfor's Knowledge Management Plarform, see: http://www.oitcinterfor.org
Migrant workers
According to the ILO global estimates on migrant workers, there were around 164 million migrant workers in 2017.
Migrant workers contribute to growth and development in their countries of destination, while countries of origin greatly benefit from their remittances and the skills acquired during their migration experience. Yet, many migrant workers face challenges in accessing quality training and decent jobs including under-utilization of skills, a lack of employment or training opportunities, lack of information, and exploitation of low-skilled workers.
To address these challenges, countries need to strengthen skills anticipation systems to inform migration policies, increase access to education and training, and establish bilateral or multilateral recognition of qualifications and skills.
Research papers
Working papers, reports, and other publications from international organizations, academic institutions and bilateral agencies. Research findings to stimulate informed debate on skills, employment and productivity issues.
Labour migration
Migrant workers
Skills anticipation
Skills mismatch
Skills recognition
Asia and the Pacific
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has a strong track record of growth and development, even in times of elevated global uncertainty. A robust demographic dividend, strong ready-made garment exports, resilient remittance inflows, and stable macroeconomic conditions have supported rapid economic growth over the past two decades. A strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continued in FY22, although a recent surge in commodity prices has presented new headwinds.
Bangladesh reached lower-middle income status in 2015. It is on track to graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Countries list in 2026. Poverty declined from 43.5 percent in 1991 to 14.3 percent in 2016, based on the international poverty line of $1.90 a day (1).
Like many of its Asian neighbours, Bangladesh faces a major challenge trying to develop modern, employability skills for tens of millions of young women and men. It has a large informal sector, which accounts for 94.7 percent of the total employment in 2017 (2). Youth continue to be highly affected by the lack of opportunities, with the share of youth aged 15-24 not in employment, education or training (NEET), estimated at 27.8 percent in 2020 (3).
TVET has a huge role to play in equipping the vast young labour force of 15-29 years referred to as the country’s “demographic dividend” with employability skills and providing enhanced support services to ensure a better transition from school to work. TVET may also contribute to reducing poverty by providing employability skills, particularly to those who drop out of school early and to a large number of unemployed and underemployed adults.
Despite many reform initiatives by the government, the TVET sector needs further strengthening through reform of policies and systems in the labour market. Enhancing industry-relevance of TVET qualifications will furthermore require closer Government cooperation with the private sector. For one and a half decade, the ILO has worked closely with the Government of Bangladesh and its Social Partners to reform the TVET sector and to improve access for people to increase their skills and employability, in particular youth, women and people from other marginalized groups.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had detrimental effects on the TVET sector, due to the nation-wide closure of all educational institutes for one and a half years, starting on 17 March 2020. Most students’ learning was effectively abolished for this duration, and learning and certification was only possible through limited online learning facilities in existence at the time. Only recently has the TVET returned to its prior activity level.
The ILO landmark programmes aim to strengthen and improve the environment for industry skills development, address the mismatch between the supply and demand for skills training, and drive the increased employability of millions of young women and men. ILO’s support to develop the skills system in Bangladesh has focused on skills system governance, development of skills policies and qualifications frameworks; delivery of quality skills training, expanding access to TVET, and involvement by the private sector.
Sources
(1) https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/bangladesh/overview
(2) https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/informality/
(3) https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/youth/
Country Assessment and Priority (CAP) – Bangladesh strategy for skills and lifelong learning (2022)
Situation Analysis of Bangladesh TVET Sector (2019) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—ro-bangkok/—ilo-dhaka/documents/publication/wcms_735704.pdf_