Dominance of unskilled expats proves govt's skill development efforts futile
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Mashiur Rahaman
More than half of the country's overseas job-seekers in 2009 were unskilled workers, showing the futility of the government's effort to upgrade the outbound workers' skills, expatriate welfare ministry source said.
"Unskilled workers encapsulated 53 per cent of the year's total overseas employment," the ministry official said.
According to the overseas employment data revealed by the state-run Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 475,278 Bangladeshi nationals secured jobs abroad during 2009, particularly in Middle East.
Out of the year's total, 255,070 outgoing job-seekers were under-skilled or unskilled. It was 51 per cent of the total 875,055 overseas employment, the BMET data added.
Expressing disappointment over the unskilled workers' domination in the major revenue generating sector of the country, experts criticised the government's various attempts to upgrade the outbound Bangladeshi manpower.
He urged the responsible government department as well as the private recruiting agencies to pay proper attention on workers' skill improvement.
"Each skilled and professional worker is capable of generating more than double revenue than an unskilled or semi-skilled worker," he explained, adding that the country's remittance earning in 2009 would have been double, if the low-skilled workers would have been upgraded prior to their departure.
A few months of technical training is enough for such upgradation, he added.
According to the central bank, the country earned US$ 10.72 billion as remittance in 2009.
BMET data also elaborated that 84,517 semi-skilled (18 per cent), 134,265 skilled (28 per cent), and 1,426 professional (0.3 per cent) workers secured their jobs abroad in 2009.
Admitting the uneasy domination of unskilled and low-skilled workers in the country's total overseas employment arena, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) president Golam Mostafa said members of his association have initiated establishment of training centres to improve the migrant workers' skills.
More than half of the country's overseas job-seekers in 2009 were unskilled workers, showing the futility of the government's effort to upgrade the outbound workers' skills, expatriate welfare ministry source said.
"Unskilled workers encapsulated 53 per cent of the year's total overseas employment," the ministry official said.
According to the overseas employment data revealed by the state-run Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 475,278 Bangladeshi nationals secured jobs abroad during 2009, particularly in Middle East.
Out of the year's total, 255,070 outgoing job-seekers were under-skilled or unskilled. It was 51 per cent of the total 875,055 overseas employment, the BMET data added.
Expressing disappointment over the unskilled workers' domination in the major revenue generating sector of the country, experts criticised the government's various attempts to upgrade the outbound Bangladeshi manpower.
He urged the responsible government department as well as the private recruiting agencies to pay proper attention on workers' skill improvement.
"Each skilled and professional worker is capable of generating more than double revenue than an unskilled or semi-skilled worker," he explained, adding that the country's remittance earning in 2009 would have been double, if the low-skilled workers would have been upgraded prior to their departure.
A few months of technical training is enough for such upgradation, he added.
According to the central bank, the country earned US$ 10.72 billion as remittance in 2009.
BMET data also elaborated that 84,517 semi-skilled (18 per cent), 134,265 skilled (28 per cent), and 1,426 professional (0.3 per cent) workers secured their jobs abroad in 2009.
Admitting the uneasy domination of unskilled and low-skilled workers in the country's total overseas employment arena, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) president Golam Mostafa said members of his association have initiated establishment of training centres to improve the migrant workers' skills.