Bangladesh’s economy has been growing at an unprecedented rate over the last few years, but, unfortunately, a significant portion of that growth has been jobless growth.
Moving forward, our nation faces two major challenges for sustainable growth of the economy: One, with around two million youths joining the labour force each year, it is imperative that jobs are created to cater to their needs.
Two, we must also ensure that people entering the labour force are equipped with the skills necessary for getting the jobs required, be they university graduates or otherwise.
This newspaper has editorialized before on the importance of vocational training for sustained development, and therein lies one of the key components of a healthy economy.
In this regard, the government has been doing great work, setting up technical education institutes across the country, but we need to keep that momentum going.
A challenge in this regard is not only the number of people entering the job market, but also the stigma surrounding vocational occupations, with retrograde perceptions of class and status attached to them most of the time.
Such attitudes hold us back and prevent progress -- we as a nation must come to the realization that occupations such as these are the backbone of the economy and provide essential services which a nation cannot do without, be it plumbing, carpentry, or nursing.
The more we allow our economy to become inclusive moving forward, the better it will be for us as a nation, and for the people who keep this economy running.
