The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) has categorised migrant workers into four skill levels: professionals, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Doctors, engineers, architects, teachers, accountants, computer operators, pharmacists, nurses, foremen, diploma engineers, paramedics and salespeople are considered professionals while mechanics, welders, porters, electricians, painters, cooks, drivers, plumbers, garment workers and certified caregivers are skilled workers. On the other hand, farmers, gardeners and those working as assistant in garments and shops are considered semi-skilled workers, and cleaners, domestic workers and menial workers are unskilled workers.
Bangladesh primarily participates in the semi-skilled and unskilled labour market. In 2024, 4.59 per cent of those who migrated abroad for work were professionals, 23.62 per cent were skilled, 17.56 per cent semi-skilled and 54.23 per cent unskilled.
A report by the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) based on government data showed that the labour market for Bangladeshi workers shrank in 2024 compared to the previous year. From January to November 2024, 906,000 men and women migrated for work, down from 1.3 million in 2023, which means a 30.8 per cent decrease in migration, said the RMMRU report.
Closure of labour markets in countries like Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) significantly contributed to the decreasing trend, which also led to a rise in sending unskilled workers. In 2024, the rate of unskilled worker migration rose by at least 4.0 percentage points compared to the previous year. Migration expert Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder told the FE that even if the government arranges training, it would hardly change the situation until there is a major shift towards vocational education. About sending professionals, he noted that the process is far more complex than for regular migrant workers, as it involves long-duration examinations and complex procedures. Therefore, experts suggest G-2-G agreements to send professionals.
Developing skills is too open-ended an issue; although it's initially the job market at home and abroad that comes to one's mind, the idea of skill development is integral to the making of efficient human resource that besides taking care of itself can contribute to the economy in myriad forms and shapes. It is here that skill is essentially a matter of developing individuals, preferably the youths, in the various segments of activities. While higher skill is a matter related to the educated groups, less educated groups are the potential target for hands-on skill development.
The key issue is about developing a national culture for nurturing and developing skills that only can turn humans into resources. This is because, as yet, there is no known or lately innovated shortcut to skill development. Being a continuous process, it calls for a persistent and comprehensive planning. Stray efforts in the name of skill development do not pay in the long run. Examples are aplenty of development programmes and industrial productivity languishing in deficiencies mostly from lack of sufficient skills on the part of the manpower engaged at various tiers. There was a much talked about government initiative around a year ago to provide skill development training to 1.5 million people, in phases under a project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and partnered by the Bangladesh Garment manufacturers' and Exporters' Association (BGMEA). Progress achieved so far under the project is not known.
While deficiencies in skilled human resource at home is made up by large intake of foreigners in various productive sectors, export of unskilled workers abroad is fated to fetch very little in wages and salaries. In both cases, it is the lack of value addition that ultimately costs the country heavily.
The expatriate ministry is trying to facilitate overseas job seekers mainly through reducing the cost of migration. A welcome initiative no doubt! But to ensure that the job aspirants are secured well enough in their work places abroad in terms of salary and other perks including welfare benefits, efforts should be in place to cater to the mid-and-up-end job markets. In this respect, a well designed policy backed by information on market needs and facilitating measures can generate a meaningful boost in employment overseas.
Many conscious citizens are quick to conclude that it is predominantly the government agencies' failure to take an objective and comprehensive view of workers' migration that has turned things from bad to worse, lately. As a result, botched up moves, mostly lackluster and indecisive, have done more harm than good for the migrant workers. The migration of women workers may be seen as a case in point. One has reasons to doubt there was any well thought out plan or homework on the part of the government before deciding to send thousands of unskilled rural women to go and work in the Middle Eastern countries.
Now that overseas employments are shrinking, what is needed most is a well designed migration policy. Clearly, sending unskilled workers no longer holds good prospect. When it comes to catering for semi-skilled and skilled jobs, it is critically important to create demand-based skills and upgrade training in keeping with the market-specific needs.
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