Bangladesh needs to concentrate on school education and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) for uplifting education and skills development as the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) may pose a serious threat to the country’s labour centric industrial sector, said a recent government study, reports BSS.
The study titled `Education and Skills for Leveraging Fourth Industrial Revolution’ was conducted by Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT) Project of Bangladesh Computer Council under ICT Division in collaboration with Centre for Project Management Institute (PMIS) of Dhaka University.
The study has identified 12 strategic areas for giving concentration by the government to tap potential of fourth industrial revolution as well as face its challenges.
The strategic areas are school ICT education, CSE education, Diploma Programs in 4IR Technology stack, 4IR use cases and best practices, specialized laboratories and incubation facilities for 4IR, 4IR skills and upskills facilities for workers, 4IR technology monitoring and forecasting capacity, SDG linked sector-specific 4IR led transformation, local 4IR innovations and IAIP, mindset of stakeholders for leveraging 4IR, technology and innovation management competence and analytical ability, creative thinking and life-long self-learning ability.
The study put forward some recommendations to the government including upgrading school ICT education with 4IR centric contents and expanded to primary school level and computer science and engineering education and introducing Diploma Programs in 4IR Technology stack.
The recommendations also stressed on establishing specialized laboratories and incubation facilities for 4IR, developing 4IR skills and up skills facilities for workers, focusing on SDG linked sector-specific 4IR led transformation and developing analytical ability, creative thinking and life-long self-learning ability.
“We are very much aware about the emergence of Fourth Industrial Revolution and that is why we have conducted research to find out areas of work,” ICT Senior Secretary N M Zeaul Alam said.
He said Bangladesh is taking full preparation to leverage the creative dimension of Fourth Industrial revolution. The ICT Division has taken a project titled Leveraging ICT for Employment and Growth of the IT-ITES Industry’ to provide policy support and other related issues, he added.
The study said for leveraging creative part more than the job loss dimension of 4IR, Bangladesh should empower the industry by uplifting the education skills development capacities.