Business leaders and HR experts have underlined the need for upgrading the university-level curricula with need-based education to meet the shortage of competent workforce in the country's corporate sector.
The views came Saturday at a panel discussion of the Bangladesh Society for Human Resources Management (BSRHM) 4th International HR Conference-2015 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the city.
BSHRM organised the conference with the theme "People Drive Business."
Chaired by vice chancellor of Southeast University Prof Anwar Hossain, the panel discussion on "Meet the Leaders: How Shall the HR Leaders of Tomorrow Prepare for the Future" was addressed by managing director of Unique Group Mohd Noor Ali, managing director of Pragati Life Insurance Ltd Md Jalalul Azim, chairman of Daffodil Group Md Sabur Khan and founder president of BSHRM Mehboobur Rehman.
Some of the business leaders said they, in many cases, were not getting competent employees, which is forcing them to hire people from other countries.
"There is huge shortage of competent human resources (HR) especially at the high level posts of different corporate entities in the country," they said while sharing their experience of recruiting officials to their companies.
"Our educational curricula mostly focus on certificates, not careers, resulting in shortage of competent HR in the country," they claimed and emphasised its upgradation by need-based education to face the crisis.
To meet the growing demand of talented people, the discussants also called upon BSHRM to play its vital role more effectively in the future.
The speakers discussed the future role of HR officials in the country and globally from different perspectives, and pointed out some prospects and challenges in the sector.
Comparing the local employees with those hired from abroad, some discussants said that the Bangladeshi people innately have amazing capacity to deal with a situation more efficiently. "But they need to be given need-based education and proper training."
They also laid stress on adoption of technology by the HR people and other employees to successfully manage the changing situation in the corporate sector and have better outcome.
Calling upon the corporate entities to spend more on developing their HR, they stressed changing the mindsets of the industrialists and academia towards importance of HR manager and development of the competent workforce.
They also urged the HR managers to work hard and play their due role for getting due importance in policy formulation at a company.
The conference was also attended, among others, by chairman of the Australian Human Resource Institute Peter Wilson, BSHRM president Md Musharrof Hossain, treasurer of BSHRM Md Mashequr Rahman Khan and business leaders and HR experts from home and abroad.
Another panel discussion on "Regional Perspective: What Do We Learn from Each Other?" also took place at the conference.
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