Universities and industries may work together to reduce unemployment

Graduate unemployment is a major problem in our country. A large number of young people are suffering from underemployment problem. They have to opt for a job that is not suitable to them and there is little scope of fulfilling their potentials. Even we see that graduates of Bangla literature are working in banks, graduates of Physics working in hospitals. But there is very little research on the real situation of employment of our young graduates.
If we look at sector wise employment generation then we will see agriculture is still at the top with 47% employment generation rate followed by service sector which is 37% and industrial and manufacturing sector 14%. We are clearly lagging behind in terms of industrial and manufacturing sector oriented employment whereas these sectors could easily generate employment of a good number of our young graduates. Our manufacturing sector has been experiencing robust growth. The leading manufacturing sectors are garment, pharmaceuticals, IT, shipbuilding and so on. Some new manufacturing industries are coming up with huge potentials: hospitality and tourism, cultural industry including performing arts, creative writing etc.
We have total work force of about 85 million. And 42% among them are young people. Creating employment opportunities for such a large number of work force is indeed a daunting task.  Universities have the primary onus of educating their students properly so that they can find good jobs and flourish their potentials. Industries will create employment opportunities for them and develop them further. But our universities are not producing students according to employment demand. Every private university is producing graduates in business administration and now business graduates are so much available that even a grocery shop wants a business graduates as their manager.  
Though we have a serious unemployment problem but fact is that most of the companies are running with 10-15% of vacant positions because they do not have the right people. In the near future, the problem will be acute. That is why it is necessary to make a bridge between universities and industries.
Our universities should encourage students in participating and talking about their visions in different forums organised by the universities. Students need to develop their soft skills. They need to ask questions. By talking, asking and participating soft skills will be developed among students. Soft skills are crucial to be successful in professional life.  Universities have to develop various events in order to develop soft skills of their students. These are basics. Students with basic skills will go to industries. Industries will develop them further. They have to invest in capacity building of their employees. It will ultimately pay benefit to the overall industrial sector.
Apparel and beautification industries have bright future. Our university students are a little bit snob for this industry. They fail to understand the prospect of these emerging sectors. In the long run these industries will need a lot of skilled professionals. These industries should also brand themselves. It will attract talented professionals in future. Our young graduates must realise the potentials of this industry.  
There are three dimensions and these are graduate development, content i.e. curriculum development and finally faculty development. We need to orient our students about job market from the 2nd year so that they can prepare themselves to face the challenges of tomorrow. The second dimension is to review course curriculum and how these programmes are relevant to meet the demand of our industry.  Most of the business cases and examples are taught from western perspective but we should also promote local success stories and cases.  The third dimension is to continuously develop our faculties and many of them are not aware about emerging industries. Universities should take structured approach in developing the capabilities of faculties and industry must play its role by offering insights and exposure.
There is a communication gap between the Industry and University because they rarely talk and listen to each other. Job market is changing continuously and evolving very fast. Rapid progress in the sector of information technology is replacing the clerical jobs. There is huge demand but acute supply of innovative and intelligent graduates. Innovation has to be encouraged and rewarded at academic level. We have to follow the changing requirements of our job market and prepare our students accordingly. There is a great scope of talent export. Bangladesh has already done a good job in this regard. We can do even better and earn more foreign currency.
Employers always look for talents. The particular challenge we are facing is we do not have the information which university has what kind of specialisation. Now we assess it from performance of our employees. Every university offers every kind of topic. Specialization and branding of universities are very important. It is important to know for the universities which university is specialized on what subject.
Knowledge can be acquired, skills can be changed and learned but what our students lack in are confidence and attitude. Leadership, soft skills and  communication skills are very much needed. We cannot work without English skills. Today, learning English is no longer an added advantage, it is a must to compete with the outside world. Universities can focus on fixing these basics.
India has been following the university-industry collaboration for many years. They have strong industrial attachment programme in their education curricula. Many of our universities invite industrial people to give lecture. But it is a one-off program. We have to build a consistent partnership where both the industry and university will have a stake for a particular outcome.
Bangladesh has great opportunities in creating entrepreneurship among young people. The young minds can really make difference. They can be employers. Instead of waiting for employers they can create jobs on their own. It is a peculiar phenomenon in our country that many people are going after few jobs and many jobs are going after few people. We have to get out of it.
According to world famous British Journal Economist, 47% graduates in Bangladesh are unemployed.  As per World Bank statistics, our unemployment rate is 14.20%. About 22 lac people are entering in labour market every year and out of them only 7 lac get jobs.    
A platform for university-industry collaboration is necessary. Our young graduates will be able to get the best of this partnership. Besides, a comprehensive human resource planning is necessary where it will be determined how many graduates in what subject we need. Universities will produce graduates according to demand only so that everybody can get due job.  
The writer works in the global
marketing of seafood from Bangladesh, email:
bari@blacktigerint.com