Youth unemployment in the country has reached triple the general unemployment rate, mainly due to inadequate science and technology-based education, outdated curricula, and mismatches with labour market skill needs, according to experts and economists.
They suggested increasing quality investment on education, updating curricula, expanding technical and vocational education to reach the skills of youth population at a certain level enough to explore full potential of demographic dividend.
Their recommendations came from a roundtable discussion on "Navigating the Future: Youth Empowerment to Develop Just, Resilient, and Sustainable Bangladesh" arranged by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and ActionAid Bangladesh at a hotel in the capital on Wednesday.
Rezaul Maksud Jahedi, secretary, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Dr Selim Raihan, professor of economics at the University of Dhaka and Executive Director of SANEM, spoke among others at the event chaired by Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh.
Rezaul Maksud Jahedi called upon the young people present at the event to become job creators instead of job seekers.
He emphasised skill development, innovative solutions, alternative thinking, adopting new technologies, and developing entrepreneurship to cope with the fourth industrial revelation.
Referring to unemployment as one of the country's major crises, he explained the initiatives of the current government in this regard and said every ministry is working to create employment in some way or other.
"We want to create a platform with the aim of reducing the unemployment rate," he said adding, there are over 0.8 million freelancers in the country.
He said that a silent revolution is happening in the country and the actual income by freelancers is over $1 billion.
Dr Selim Raihan said for the last couple of decades the country has been enjoying a very short window of demographic dividend which is to be concluded by 2035 or 2036, and the economy is yet to utilize the opportunity due to lack of investment in education.
He said that the government should have increased investment in the past for human development like health and education, but majority of development allocation in the past Awami Leage government were spent for infrastructure.
He said that the economy will be stuck in a middle income trap when the window of demographic dividend will be closed.
Farah Kabir expressed optimism about Bangladesh's future in the aftermath of the July movement, stating, "We now have a renewed opportunity to build a better Bangladesh. It's crucial to convey an important message to our youth: without a solid education, one cannot become a leader, an expert, or compete on a global stage."
She said that there are lot of debates going on now about auto promotion, auto pass, and shortening the curriculum, which cannot be an effective approach.
"We have to remember, there are no shortcuts in education. You have to study, you have to research," she said. Ekramul Hasan, research associate, Sanem, presented keynote titled, "Navigating the Future: Youth Empowerment for a Just, Resilient, and Sustainable Bangladesh" at the event.
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