Forty-five public and private training institutes on Wednesday signed an agreement to improve the skills of workers through the “Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP)”, a US$ 79 million operation supported by the World Bank (WB).

The director general, Directorate of Technical Education and the heads of the 45 Public-Private Institutes mutually signed the contracts. Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid was the chief guest at the programme while WB country director Ellen Goldstein was the special guest.

Under this initiative, public and private training institutions will be strengthened to improve the skills of the workforce. The project will focus on improving the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system to develop high- quality workers who will be able to respond to the needs of both the domestic and international labour markets.

The project aims to strengthen the capacity of at least 30 polytechnic institutions and 50 short-term training providers to deliver high quality training. With this signing, already 22 polytechnic institutes and 45 short-term training providers have performance contracts to improve the quality of their services.

The project will also support about 160,000 student-years through “stipend for diploma” education and around 50,000 students will participate in short-term training courses.

“The government is looking forward to the implementation of this five-year project to provide Bangladesh with a growing cadre of skilled men and women,” the education minister said. He hoped that this project would aid in helping Bangladeshi workers to be accepted abroad as skilled manpower and contribute to the growth of the manufacturing and other sectors within the country.

“An increasingly skilled labour force will be vital to accelerate economic growth in Bangladesh and maintain the country’s competitive edge in global markets,” Ellen Goldstein said on this occasion. Bangladesh’s growing workforce supports key export industries and generates remittances that contribute a significant amount to the economy.

In 2010, Bangladesh was ranked as the 7th manpower exporting country and migrant workers remitted nearly US$ 11.6 billion in 2010-11 financial year.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 22th March 2012