10pc quota for recruiters on cards

The government is considering a quota system for manpower-recruiting agencies in hiring skilled workers with an eye to ensuring increased numbers of skilled outbound manpower from the country.
To this end, the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) has recently sent a proposal to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment.
The BMET suggests a 10-per cent quota for each recruiter, meaning every agency needs to hire 10-per cent skilled workers of its total recruitment a year.
The skilled workers should complete the National Training and Vocational Qualifications Framework (NTVQF) level.
The bureau also recommended linking every 20 recruitment agencies with one technical training centre (TTC) or  institute of marine technology (IMT) so that recruiters can send trained workers abroad.
Referring to the incumbent government's electoral pledge, the BMET in its letter said it has become necessary to send 1,000 young men and women abroad from each upazila through training.
Talking to the FE, BMET director general Md Shahidul Alam spoke about a plan to increase the outflow of skilled workers abroad.
"To this effect, we're thinking of introducing a 10-per cent quota for each recruitment agency."
"If we can take measures," said Mr Alam, "the recruiters will be required to fetch orders for skilled workers from employing countries."
The BMET has taken multiple steps to improve the quality of training for overseas job seekers.
According to government statistics, 80,000 aspirants are trained annually by government-run TTCs.
At present, the BMET operates 91 TTCs and six IMTs in the country.
Currently, a total of 1,847 licensed manpower recruiters work to send workers abroad from Bangladesh.
However, these agencies usually send less skilled manpower, mainly to Middle-Eastern countries.
According to sector insiders, Bangladesh cannot earn expected remittances for sending less skilled workers, although the migration of workers to the international job market is on the rise every year.
They said the latest move to fix a quota would help increase skilled outbound workers to ensure quality labour migration, seeking a specific government plan to send skilled workers.
They suggested producing country-wise demand-driven skilled workers, market promotion and setting the yearly target of sending skilled workers.
Shakirul Islam, chairman of the Obhibasi Karmi Unnayan Programme (OKUP), said quota would be good, but training should be demand-based so that recruiters could bring the demand for such workers.
"International accreditation should be ensured in the case of certification of skills," he told the FE.
Official statistics show Bangladesh sent a record 1.1 million manpower to different job destination countries in 2022. Of them, only 22.22 per cent were skilled migrants.
Only 0.29 million were skilled or semi-skilled workers while only 3,640 professionals could go abroad during the period in question.
According to the Economic Review 2023, published by the finance ministry, less-skilled migrant workers increased from 71.59 per cent in 2010 to 74 per cent in 2022, reflecting poor growth in skilled migration in the last 13 years.
Meanwhile, in fiscal year (FY) 2021-22, the remittance inflow dropped to $21.03 billion from $24.78 billion in FY 2020-21, according to the central bank data.
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