A total of 10 local manufacturing sectors experience an average of 30% skill gap that also increases with the level of technological sophistication of the industrial sectors, a study reveals.
The rate of annual training in these surveyed sectors is lower, only 1.35% than the national average of 3.65%.
The 10 sectors include agro-food processing, healthcare, hospitality and tourism, RMG and textile, constructions, leather, light engineering, shipbuilding, IT and electronics while the five potential ones are-furniture, jute, pharmaceuticals, plastic and renewable energy.
Training programs have been suggested to gradually move towards technologically sophisticated industries as the skill gap was higher for the professionals and technical personnel.
Massive investment in skill development is also required to sustain higher growth, according to the findings of the study.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) senior research fellow Kazi Iqbal presented the statistics during the research findings on the “Labour Market Studies for SEIP (Skills for Employment Investment Program) on Skill Demand, Supply and Mismatch” at a dissemination workshop held in the city on Sunday.
Planning Minister MA Mannan as the chief guest attended the workshop chaired by BIDS director general Dr Binayak Sen.
SEIP project under the Finance Ministry has commissioned BIDS to conduct the study.
Regarding sectoral studies, a total of 1,138 enterprises and 7,018 workers were surveyed.
Citing the present scenario of the readymade garment (RMG) sector, the study said that female workers were more proficient than male workers in female- dominant industries and skill gap was also found to be higher for senior level technical positions.
The study revealed that 53.74% out of the 119 surveyed RMG enterprises face skill gaps in general.
In terms of categories, skill gaps faced by enterprises are as follows: lockstitch machine operator (74.65% firms), flatlock machine operator (72.31% firms), overlock machine operator (66.99% firms), printing machine operator (66.67% firms), quality inspector (64.91% firms), chain stitch machine operator (63.48% firms), embroidery machine operator (62.50% firms), iron man/woman (60.3% firms), quality controller (57.23% firms) and feed of the arm machine operator (56.64% firms).
The study covered 117 agro processing enterprises with 41,546 employees and found a total export to output ratio per enterprise around 3%.
It means that only 3% of the total output by the 117 agro processing enterprises are exported. The enterprises agreed that the current employees have a skill gap, the report said.
Reports found a higher skill gap existed for higher paid jobs like managers and professionals.
In the existing labour categories of the construction sector, other than the employees for senior management and support staff, all the other ones seem to have a skill gap, it said.
Evidence from service sectors like tourism and hotels suggested that soft skills can be taught; hence it should be a part of the training program.
It said that alignment of education and skill development policies with industrial policy was important to lessen the skill gap.
Speaking at the workshop, MA Mannan admitted that there exists lack of coordination among different skill development measures and added that the private sector, government and academia should join hands to develop human capital in the country.
He said that the government was working on education to make it demand driven.
Binayak Sen said skill was not a constraint for Bangladesh in achieving economic growth exaltation as there were many scopes for the country to go forward with low skills through RMG sector, agriculture and expatriate workers.
