In 1980, Daewoo – one of the major exporters of garments in South Korea – signed a five-year collaboration agreement with Desh Company, the first garment company in Bangladesh. The agreement included collaborations in the areas of technical training, purchase of machinery and fabric, and plant set-up and marketing, in return for a specific marketing commission on all exports by Desh during the contract period. 130 Desh supervisors and managers went to Daewoo’s Pusan Plant in South Korea for six months of training in the export-oriented garment business.
The outcome of the collaboration was significant, as Desh’s export value reached more than $5m in 1986/87. Later, many trainees left Desh Company at various times to set up their own competing garment firms. As a result, the training these employees received from Daewoo spread throughout the country and an uncharted territory in an impoverished country was explored.
After 33 years, a debate has been raised about whether mid-level managers should be sent abroad for training, or if we should set up a local training school governed by foreign experts. But this time, it is not about how to do the business, rather how to improve the skills of manager.
The lack of skilled managers is a key constraint to the growth of the Bangladesh garments industry as explored by the McKinsey report. In response to this deficiency, German development agency GIZ and Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BGCCI) set up a training school to produce skilled mid-level managers. The Bangladesh Institute of Management (BIM), in collaboration with GIZ has launched a Diploma Course on “Productivity and Quality Management” which is designed to meet the technical needs of middle management working in this sector.
In spite of these efforts, I think there is another way to overcome this drawback. Every year, hundreds of students are graduating from public and private universities after completing Bachelor of Business Studies. The majority of them are interested to work either in banks or in telecommunication. They first start their careers in these organisations by doing internships or part-time jobs in call centres while studying.
In order to attract this skilled workforce, companies also participate in job fairs. But my concern is: Why don’t students from business studies backgrounds not think of becoming employees in the garments sector by taking the responsibility of manager? This is the sector that represents Bangladesh to the global world, an industry that has created a branding image of the country, but we have failed to utilise the skills of our graduates in this industry. From the students’ point of view, as I understand, one of the reasons is that the salary package is below their expectations.
The entrepreneurs, on the contrary, explain it in a different way – these students do not have the experience required for the garment industry. But is it a strong reason?
Every job goes through a provisional period when newly appointed employees take training so that they understand what they are going to do. If there is space for them in the garments sector, business graduates can take that training. Although such training takes a short period, there is no way to deny the advantages.
As students, they take courses such as industrial law, human resource management, and other courses which are very relevant to factory management skills. The educated managers can easily guide the workers about labour laws and responsibility to the company. It is not only about sharing and using knowledge, but also developing a skill to do a job in an efficient way.
If they don’t have experience in garments factories, let’s offer internships to the business graduates. Besides the classroom environments, nowadays students strengthen their potential by participating in community work through student clubs at home and abroad.
Thinking of the real life challenges, the universities have created an environment for spontaneous participation of students in co-curricular activities, creating leaders for the future, and providing opportunities for community service activities. Not using these skills in the garments sector would cost a lot.
Ludovico Alcorta, a director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, and Christopher M Woodruff, an economics professor at University of Warwick said: “Bangladesh will not be able to raise its garment exports to $30 billion by 2015 and $50 billion by 2021 without improving workers’ productivity.”
One of the key factors to increase workers’ productivity is the management team you have accommodated in your factory. To achieve that, it is high time to change the perceptions of the garment owners about how to utilise the knowledge and skills of business graduates.
Instead of capitalising this resource, the owners of garments companies are more interested in short-term training of existing managers. This can be an immediate response, but it can’t be a permanent solution. Initiatives need to be taken on how to attract business graduates to work in this industry, and it should be done for the sake of sustaining the growth of the industry.
