Major industrial sectors, including the largest export-oriented apparel industry, still face a higher prevalence of skills gap among employees, harming their overall business productivity, according to research findings.
The findings were unveiled at a technical session on ‘Skills and labour market outcomes’ on the concluding day of two-day BIDS Research Almanac 2023 at a city hotel on Thursday. A total of four studies were presented at the session.
A study, titled ‘Labour market and skills gap analysis for readymade garment industry in Bangladesh’, conducted by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), finds that the knit industry continues to face skills gap in their employees as nearly 68.79 per cent of firms admitted that they suffered from skills gap in the flatlock machine operator category.
About 47.83 per cent of firms in the woven industry said they have such a gap in the manger category.
Helpers, most of the sewing machine operators, quality inspectors, and some of the finishing operators in the knit industry reported a higher skills gap, says the study conducted between 2021 and 2022.
On the other hand, management employees, quality controllers and some of the finishing operators in the woven industry have more shares among the prevailing total share of skills gap in employees, it shows.
Rizwana Islam, one of the researchers who presented the study, said about 6.5 per cent of the woven industry and nearly 2.99 per cent of the knit industry reported that they think employing foreign skilled workers could be a way out for them to mitigate the level of existing skills gap.
A total of 476 workers were interviewed from 119 enterprises in the study where employers determined the skills gap of their employees based on their proficiency level.
In terms of knit industry, the skills gap faced by enterprises is as follows: flatlock machine operator (68.79 per cent), other SMOs including helpers in the sewing machine operator category (68.04 per cent firms), printing machine operator (66.67 per cent firms), quality inspector (65.54 per cent firms) and lockstitch machine operator (62.26 per cent firms).
In the categories of woven industry, the skills gap faced by enterprises is as follows: managers (47.83 per cent firms), management employees (46.55 per cent firms), sticker man (46.15 per cent firms), and marker man (45.59 per cent).
Another study paper – ‘Skill mismatch and labour productivity: evidence from two emerging sectors of Bangladesh’ – was presented by Kazi Iqbal, senior research fellow and one of the key researchers.
The study was conducted among 123 light engineering firms and 100 electronics firms.
About three-fourths of the workers in light engineering and electronics sectors found a mismatch with their education and field of work, it reveals.
Over 60 per cent of workers in the field lack adequate education and knowledge about the industry, the study said.
The incidence of under-education is the highest among the floor workers, it said, adding that under-education affects output per worker more severely.
