Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu has said the expansion of technical and vocational education and training for the youth has consolidated the position of Bangladeshis in the Middle East, Malaysia and European labour markets, reports UNB. The minister said this while speaking at the closing ceremony of the three-day international conference on ‘Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for Sustainable Development’ at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel on Saturday night. Amu said the government is considering the country’s huge manpower a strong element of the national economy as it ‘creates industries, entrepreneurs, workers and domestic market’. That is why, he added, the government has continued its efforts to create skilled and efficient manpower capable of surviving the competition in the international labour market. The industries minister said the government is considering enhancement of skills a key weapon of poverty alleviation and socio-economic development and for which it has constituted the National Skill Council (NSC). He said initiatives have been taken to implement three projects on technical and vocational education and training in cooperation with the European Commission, Asian Development Bank and World Bank. Amu said the government has already established many technical schools and colleges at Upazila level and strengthened the activities of the existing training centres as technical education played a key role in poverty alleviation. He said the government would consider every recommendation coming out from the international conference with high importance. State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam spoke at the programme as a special guest. He said around 400,000 diploma engineers have been created in the country in the last 44 years. He said several ministers, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, joined different sessions of the conference as it has given technical and vocation education the utmost priority. Giving diploma engineers a high complement, he said: “Eighty-five per cent of the development works are done by you guys.” CPSC Faculty Consultant G Kulanthaivel and IDEB President AKMA Hamid and General Secretary Md Shamsur Rahman also spoke on the occasion. The Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB) and Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC), Manila organised the conference in cooperation with the education ministry, Canada and the World Bank.
