Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar has said students must develop other skills alongside traditional education for progress in life, reports BSS.
"Class education is only a small part of building a career. To progress in life, one must develop other skills along with education. Among them, developing leadership qualities and communication skills are one of them," the minister said while speaking as a chief guest at a symposium titled "Leadership Skills for Smart Bangladesh."
The symposium was held at the Dr. Mohammad Habibullah Conference Hall of Dhaka University in an initiative of Actionist Foundation on Thursday.
Dr. Bernd Spanier, charge d'affairs of European Union Delegation to Bangladesh, was present at the symposium as a special guest.
The event was presided over by Actionist Foundation Founder and Executive Director ANM Fakhrul Amin Farhad.
Mohiuddin Bhuiyan and Khadija Akhtar Urmi conducted the program. Welcome speech was delivered by Raisa Naser, Head of communication of the organisation.
Masud Khan, chairman of Unilever Consumer Care Limited, said, "We are guided by our mind. So our psychology has a lot of influence in our personal and professional life. That is why mental wellbeing is necessary for us. We have to overcome negativity and have a positive mindset."
"Along with mental training, our physical training is also important. There is no substitute for physical exercise to stay active," he added.
During his speech, Manik Mahmood, head of social innovation at A2I Programme, said the students are not aware of the huge gap in academic and work life skills.
"But they face problems due to lack of work life skills at workplace," he said.
Meanwhile, Star Cineplex Chairperson, Mahboob Rahman, said, "We can never ignore the skill issue. Word, PowerPoint, Excel among many skills will be needed in our daily life and we should learn it seriously. Besides this, we must ensure the proper management of social media."
Bernd Spanier said, "Bangladesh has a large population. If the quality of this large population can be increased, a great revolution will be achieved. Investment is now needed to increase the digital skills of the youth."
Faculties of University of Dhaka, Imran Hossain Bhuiyan and Sadia Noor Khan, were also present as panel moderators.