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| university graduate student picture from google |
Graduates struggle to find jobs, with more than a third of them remaining unemployed one or two years after graduation, said the World Bank in its latest report -- a damning evidence of the poor state of the country’s education system.
“This indicates a major skills gap,” said the Washington-based multilateral lender in the report ‘Bangladesh Development Update October 2019: Tertiary Education and Job Skills’, which was launched yesterday at its office in Dhaka.
Only 19 percent of college graduates are employed full-time or part-time, while nearly half are unemployed.
Furthermore, female graduates are far more likely to be unemployed and out of study two years after graduation: 43 percent of the female university graduates remain unemployed in contrast to 37 percent male graduates.The Bangladesh Development Studies (BDS) is published quarterly by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). The journal contains original, innovative and thought-provoking (theoretical and empirical) contributions to the existing knowledge on Economics in general and development issues facing Bangladesh and other developing countries in particular. BIDS researchers as well as national and international scholars contribute to the journal.Occasionally, the BDS publishes special issues. However, the journal also contains reviews of recently published books on development. The BDS provides a platform for researchers, practitioners, academics, policy-makers and the concerned citizens with an interest in the research to explore and exchange knowledge, ideas, information and analyses on economic and social development issues and contributes significantly to extend developmental theory and new empirical information. Founded in 1973, the BDS has become the leading Bangladeshi scholarly journal of Economics and other related social sciences devoted to the study of economic and development issues.About 46% of the total unemployed youth are university graduates. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) also noted the rising unemployment rate among the relatively more educated labour force.
On the other hand, a large number of foreigners -- mainly from India and Sri Lanka -- are working in various industrial sectors. This is happening because our local labour force lacks the required technical and managerial skills much-needed in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It shows that the quality of education in the existing system doesn’t match the needs of the current job market. The government should take the lead to work on ensuring quality education by upgrading the curriculum at all levels and also launch a separate Ministry for Human Resources which will make a database for assessing the needs of the industry and the number of students graduating every year.According to a report of BD Forbes , over 57% of the youth with university degrees, did not get any job within 6 months to 2 years of passing out. Among them 349.9% remained jobless for at least 6 months.
Of those with HSC degrees, 49% remained unemployed for up to 2 years while 46% among them remained jobless for 6 months.
About half of the total those with SSC degrees, remained jobless for 6 months.
Every government introduces an education policy as soon as it assumes power, but none takes into cognizance the specific kind of education required at home and abroad. New departments are being opened at the universities, with little consideration to their relevance.