The low-level education and skill of the majority of the workforce in Bangladesh remains a major constraint on the labout productivity and it poses a challenge to achieving the high economic growth, according to a new report.
The report said the low-productivity in its industrial development and competitiveness is a continuing challenge for the country compared with other neighbouring countries like India and Sri Lanka.
Only one-fourth of the private companies in Bangladesh conduct in-firm training to their employees, it said.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) made the observation in a book titled "Anticipating and Preparing for Emerging Skills and Jobs" published by its headquarters in Manila on Monday.
To sustain and accelerate economic growth, the book suggested Bangladesh diversify its economic bases and move up the value chain in the global market.
The structural transformation during the past decade had moved mostly unskilled labour from rural and peri-urban areas to textiles and garments, but these unskilled workers could acquire few skills during the process, it added.
As a result, it observed, low labour productivity is a continuing challenge for Bangladesh compared with other neighbouring countries such as India and Sri Lanka.
The book said Bangladesh's high growth is often highlighted by its booming readymade garment (RMG) industry, the share of which in total exports surged from mere 40 per cent in 1990 to 80 per cent by 2015. Much of its success is owed to low-cost production and surplus of low-skilled labour.
The RMG industrial growth underpinned the job expansion in the manufacturing sector, especially for women.
It is estimated that women's employment grew by 4.4 per cent annually due to the demand from urban industrial employment, well over twice the rate of growth in the overall working-age population.
Yet, according to the book, the majority of the labour forces still engaged in agriculture and allied sectors (41%), while about 20% are employed in the industry sector and 39% in the services sector.
It suggested developing education and skills together to improve the human capital necessary for the country's economic growth.
It said more than half of the labour force have at most primary education or no education at all; only about one-third have completed secondary education, and less than 10 per cent have a higher secondary education.
In addition, less than 4.0 per cent of the working-age population has received any technical or vocational training.
"To place the country into the accelerated growth path, it needs to be transformed from low-productivity and low-wage development to high-productivity and high-growth models. The country also needs to diversify its economic bases, going beyond the garment sector."
To achieve this vision, it added, the growing workforce needs to be equipped with education and skills that can improve their productivity and meet the emerging skill needs, especially in the face of industry 4.0 requiring increasingly higher levels of technical and cognitive skills.
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in Bangladesh as of the early 2010s was fragmented and inadequate in both quality and quantity, said the ADB publication.
"In the early 2010s, fewer than 500,000 people were trained in TVET overall, and job placement was less than 40 per cent."
With weak linkages between the TVET system and industries, most training courses could not supply the skills demanded by the job market, it said.
"Preparing the new entrants to the job market every year for making them a productive workforce with quality education and skills poses formidable challenges in the existing TVET system."
Yet, a large young workforce-if well equipped with productive skills-is vital to drive the country's future economic growth and capitalise on the "demographic dividend, the book stated.
It suggested increasing the demand for higher-level cognitive and technical skills, combined with soft skills, and that the workforce should be equipped with strong foundation competencies including digital skills.
Strong foundational skills will enable them to learn new skills effectively and adapt to the changing work environment, it said.
It predicted that the routine jobs are likely to be absorbed into automation, while non-routine jobs requiring critical thinking and creativity are likely to increase in the coming years.
Still, rapid technological advances and new business models made it increasingly unpredictable for the nature of upcoming jobs and their skills requirements, the book added.
For both existing workers and future labour entrants, strong foundation and soft skills will be essential for relearning and retraining themselves while flexibly adapting to evolving work environments, it said.
