$300m WB financing for skill dev, employment of rural youths

The World Bank will provide $300 million loans for training up some 0.9 million Bangladeshi rural youth with skills and alternative education to attain employment and create entrepreneurship.
The Bangladesh government and the WB signed a loan deal on Sunday in Dhaka.
WB Country Director Abdoulaye Seck and Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Sharifa Khan signed the agreement.
The $300 million credit from the WB's International Development Association (IDA) has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. The Bank will charge 1.75 per cent interest rate.
Under the Economic Acceleration and Resilience for NEET (EARN) Project, the Department of Youth and Sports will train the manpower for making them employable, a WB press release said.
It will help overcome barriers that prevent disadvantaged and vulnerable youth from gaining education and employment.
The project will establish vocational training centers to offer a range of skills development opportunities and provide online and offline training courses in market-driven and futuristic trades.
It will also and offer competitive financing and mentorship support for entrepreneurial activities. It will help secondary school dropouts, particularly female students to complete vocational secondary education.
"The youth are the future of any country. Creating a well-equipped competitive workforce, where no young person is excluded, is a critical development priority for Bangladesh," said Abdoulaye Seck, the WB Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.
In Bangladesh, about 27 per cent of youth that is about 12.6 million people are classified as NEET. About 90 per cent of them are female, mostly living in rural areas.
To enhance their employability, the project will offer skills development training for a wide range of market-relevant trades with emphasizing on modern and non-traditional trades, especially for women.
For secondary school dropped-out youth and adolescents, the project will provide access to Bangladesh Open University education programs through an accelerated curriculum.
They will be able to access diploma-level technical education in fields such as nursing, medical technology, agricultural food processing and other courses. To support entrepreneurship, the project will provide seed financing, mentorship, and other relevant supports to the new entrepreneurs.

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