With Covid-19 throwing the entire world of how we do business into complete disarray, there has never been a more important time to reassess our approach to work and employment in general.
To that end, the roundtable discussion with numerous industry experts conducted for World Youth Skills Day by Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) on Tuesday evening was a timely and thoughtful undertaking, and brought to light several issues regarding employment that Bangladesh, and especially its youth, will have to reckon with.
For our extremely dense population, where about 2 million new employees join the workforce every year, the ability to integrate such a large number of new entrants into the workforce with meaningful jobs that will help the economy has always been an issue, and has become more so with the pandemic.
Too often, employers have lamented that new job seekers lack the necessary skills for the workplace, and it cannot be accepted that the education offered does not align with the needs of the workplace. This must change.
Additionally, skill-sets within the youth must constantly evolve; this rapid, ever-changing world requires a dynamic youth workforce that is capable of learning new skills and remaining up to date. This will not happen without proper support, but must be prioritized.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been the biggest disrupter of life in our lifetime, and no individual, organization, or society has been spared. However, to look at it as a reset, to focus our attention now on the country’s youth, and equipping them with the appropriate skills and opportunities to propel Bangladesh forward in the future is the most important task at hand.
