Speakers at a meeting on Wednesday observed that in Bangladesh, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will make 50% of the job vulnerable by 2030.
The changes in the labour market brought by Covid-19 epidemic and the 4IR will require new skills in the world job market. Therefore, Bangladesh seeks Canada's assistance in improving the quality of technical education to deal with the new requirement of skills.
The businessmen came up with this call at the virtual meeting of the Canada-Bangladesh Joint Working Group on Strengthening Commercial Relations held on Tuesday night.
Syed Almas Kabir, a member of the working group and director of the FBCCI, presented a report on information technology and education at the meeting. According to a2i, the report says, in Bangladesh the 4IR will make 50% of the job vulnerable by 2030.
According to the data presented at the meeting, in Bangladesh, 91.40 percent of the labour force working in various sectors has no training. By 2025, 7.2 million people will need sector-based training which will reach 9.75 million by 2030, and more than 29 million by 2050.
If Canadian technical education institutes set up campuses in Bangladesh or invest in joint ventures with local institutes in these sectors, it will become mutually beneficial for both the countries, Syed Almas Kabir said.
While speaking, FBCCI Director and the president of MCCI Dhaka Md. Saiful Islam recommended to undertake exchange activities between Bangladesh and Canadian training institutes.
BPGMEA President Shamim Ahmed urged the Canadian Counterpart to establish linkages between BPGMEA training institute and the same kind in Canada.
Nuzhat Tam-Zaman, Canadian co-chair of the Joint Working Group, said they will discuss the issues with NAIT and SAIT, two Canadian technical education institutes.
The High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Canada Dr. Khalil Rahman recommended to include the representatives from Business Council of Canada (BCC) and Manitoba Chamber of Commerce in the working group.
Also present at the meeting were President of Cancham Bangladesh Masud Rahman, Editor of Travel Magazine “Vromon” and Adjunct Faculty of Daffodil University Abu Sufian, and the Secretary General of FBCCI Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque
The meeting was moderated by Angela Dark, Senior Trade Commissioner, Canadian High Commission.