Introduction

Recently, hundreds of young graduates in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi were seen sweeping
the streets while hanging their academic certificates on their necks. Seeing the euphoria among
some sections in politics and the media over Bangladesh’s graduation to a developing country, a
large number of educated youth who are running from pillar to post for a job are seen getting
curious and asking “how are we going to benefit from this new label stuck on the country?” “Will
we find more employment opportunities?”
According to an estimate of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), as many as four lakh youths
with university degrees are now unemployed and desperate for jobs. Almost every day they are
taking to the streets braving unkind police action, while some are protesting against the quota
system and some others demanding age-limit for government jobs be raised to 35 years.
With the gradual expansion of education opportunities, the number of educated youth is rising
exponentially. But after graduation many educated youths don’t find a job or don’t have the kind
of jobs they deserve or are capable of.
As per the latest data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, in the last one year the number of
jobless people went up by one lakh. In 2015-16 the total figure of unemployed individuals stood
at around 26 lakh but it rose to around 27 lakh in the following year. Although the national
average unemployment rate is 4.2 per cent, the rate is 2.7 per cent among those who studied up
to primary level and 11.2 per cent among those who graduated from universities. Which means
the more you are educated, the higher is the chance for you of remaining unemployed.
Compared to the uneducated and half-educated, educated youths are finding fewer job
openings. Literally, they are caught up in an awkward situation as neither they find a suitable job
nor can take up odd jobs. As a result, graduate unemployment rate is increasing. It also signifies
that our labor market, especially that of the formal sector, is not robust enough to serve to the
number of graduates our universities and colleges are producing out each year. According to an
estimate, 85 per cent of our labor market belongs to informal sectors where mostly children and
women are recruited.

Reasons for the high rate of unemployment among educated people

 Distribution of employment sector in Bangladesh
 Style of education not meeting the required skills of job sector
 Reliance on foreigners for mega projects
 Distribution of employment sector in Bangladesh

Figure 1Distribution of job sector in Bangladesh over the years

The bar chart above shows the distribution of job sector in Bangladesh over the years. We can
see that even in the recent times, the percentage of jobs in service sector is around 40% which
was previously 36% in 2009. It has increased by only 4% in the last 10 years and at a constant
rate, but the number of graduates, due to the increase in public and private universities, has
increased exponentially over the same period of time. Hence we can see that not enough job
opportunities have been created to cope up with the change and that is a major issue which has
to be addressed if we want to reduce unemployment amongst educated.
Graduates are caught up in an awkward situation as neither they find a suitable job nor can take
up odd jobs. As a result, graduate unemployment rate is increasing. It also signifies that our labor
market, especially that of the formal sector, is not robust enough to serve to the number of
graduates our universities and colleges are producing out each year. According to an estimate, 85
per cent of our labor market belongs to informal sectors where mostly children and women are
recruited.
We can also see from the bar that industrial job (which can be considered to be a good enough
job) has only increased by 4% over the last 10 years whereas the contenders for these jobs has
increased by a way bigger margin and hence people aren’t getting the jobs they deserve and
hence lack of satisfaction in job is taking place. Government should try and reduce the
dependency on the agriculture sector and focus on the service sector where the demand for job
is higher and also make the agricultural jobs machinery based which will decrease the number of
people working on the agricultural sector. Government can shift those people to work in
industrial sectors and also create employment in service sector as more people will be required
to make these machineries required for agricultural sectors. This can only be possible if only
government invests on training the agricultural workers and make them ready to work in the
industrial sector.

Style of education not meeting the required skills of job sector

বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের কাজ শুধু জ্ঞান দান করা নয়, বরং অর্জি ত জ্ঞান কাজে লাগানই হচ্ছে আশল কাজ।

-President Abdul Hamid

DU 52nd Convocation.
We all can imagine that how important a topic this is when the prime minister of a country
himself addresses this topic during the convocation of the biggest public university of the
country. Unfortunate but true, the universities do not provide the required education to be able
to survive in the job market in most cases. Thus a further increase in educated unemployment
takes place.
About 46% of the total unemployed youth are university graduates. The Centre for Policy
Dialogue (CPD) also noted the rising unemployment rate among the relatively more educated
labor force. 
On the other hand, a large number of foreigners, mainly from India and Sri Lanka, are working in
various industrial sectors. This is happening because our local labor force lacks the required
technical and managerial skills much-needed in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The
lack of placement policy and poor skill development initiatives from the government results in
joblessness which is pushing the youth into a domain of desperation. And lack of skill-based
education and the existence of irrelevant degrees which do not match the needs of the job
market also contribute to their compounding anxieties.
In his article, Biru Paksha Paul -- currently professor of economics at the State University of New
York at Corland -- said, “We have produced millions of youths holding master’s degrees in
Chemistry, Physics, Philosophy, History, Political Science, English, and Literature. But most of
them, if not all, want to be magistrates where power and money merge together without the
need for any ready skills.” 
The Washington-based multilateral lender in the report said,” Graduates struggle to find jobs,
with more than a third of them remaining unemployed one or two years after graduation, said
the World Bank in its latest report -- a damning evidence of the poor state of the country’s
education system. This indicates a major skills gap,”
It is fair to conclude that there is serious dearth of skilled worker which represents a serious
imbalance in the demand and supply of skilled manpower in several sectors in Bangladesh. The
number of applicants in general education far exceeds the number of applicants in technical field.
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in a study observed that the educated unemployment youth
constitute 47 per cent in Bangladesh. Disguised unemployment, a concept where workers are
engaged in low profile job despite higher academic background, should not be considered as
regular employment because the marginal productivity of labor is zero and the employment is
redundant.  It is obvious that there is a serious miss-match between the market demand for and
supply of skilled technical worker and an obvious glut in job seekers in the general education.
Labor market surveys have consistently showed that employers struggle to fill job vacancies for
highly-skilled positions such as professionals, technicians and managers: around 69 percent of
employers reported a shortage of skilled applicants for professional positions.
Employers in Bangladesh are looking for higher-order cognitive skills and soft skills, the report
said.
They rank three higher-order cognitive and soft skills as most relevant for current work
environment: problem-solving and independent thinking; work attitude; and positive personality.
However, they struggle to find graduates with these skills.
On the other hand, employers would like universities and colleges to strengthen skills training on
information and communication technology, English and higher-order thinking such as
communication, problem-solving and team work.
“Scarcity of qualified employees has resulted in higher pay for jobs requiring these skills in
Bangladesh. To address this shortage, academic programs should be improved,” the WB said.
There are many graduates seeking for job in merchandising but lack in skills in effective
communication. The English proficiency is a herculean challenge for many job seekers in
Bangladesh. Moreover, even many students with excellent academic grade in technical education
lacks experience in running simple machine or lack hands on experience in doing technical job.
Unfortunately, the academic excellence is calibrated by the students on better grade that have
little relevance in real world job environment.
From all these information we can conclude that it is both the universities and students who are
responsible for the lack of skills. Why would a student studying engineering want to switch his
career to become a magistrate? Why would universities only rely on academic skills and not focus
on field and real life experience? Many questions require answers but each community is putting
the ball in the others court and this has been happening for some time now. A solution has to be
found soon or else we will find ourselves in a deep chasm in the span of few years.
 Reliance on foreigners for mega projects
This is the last of the problems which I am discussing but it is the most important of all to say the
least. We have had many mega projects such as Metro Rail, Padma Bridge and Bangabandhu
tunnel constructions in the recent past. But, unfortunately the engineers working on these mega
projects are hired from many devoloped countries around the world which requires high amount
of money and increases the cost of the constructions by a large margin and restricts the home
country engineers from getting employment and experience.
Last year, the foreign employees, their number being more than two lakh, took home nearly $5
billion in salaries and allowances, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank.
Workers from India and China constitute over 60 per cent of the workers. This figure may be
higher when you count the foreign nationals without valid work permit and remit foreign
currency through dubious ways.
The majority of the foreign nationals are employed in the garment sector in top posts like
production managers, merchandisers, and senior sewing operators, cutting masters, designers
and washing experts. Most of the foreigners are working in production management, human
resources management, and quality control and even in mid-level management.
The foreign nationals mainly come from India and Sri Lanka, followed by Pakistan, China, South
Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines.
From 2009 to September this year, 7,030 new work permits were issued, according to data from
the Board of Investment, one of the government bodies that issue employment visas for foreign
nationals.
The other government bodies that are authorized to issue work permits are the Bangladesh
Export Processing Zones Authority and the Department of Passport and Immigration.
Between January 1 and November 29, the Department of Immigration and Passport gave
extension to employment visas for 7,822 foreign nationals. In 2014, it authorized extensions for
8,957 foreign workers.
The number is increasing everyday as many foreigners are coming here for different job
purposes, said Sabina Yeasmin, a director of the BoI.

Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters
Association, said the garment sector needs to employ foreign workers as there is a shortage of
skilled manpower for top posts like merchandising, production and designs.
 Solutions to the problems
Short term solutions
 A More Practical and Skill-Based Education
 Bridging the Quality Gap between Universities

Long term solutions

 Lowering the cost of Enterprise and ensuring safety
 Encouraging Entrepreneurship

A More Practical and Skill-Based Education

The first step towards eliminating educated unemployment would be to remodel the
education received by University Students. The primary incentive for students to pursue
tertiary education
Is to be better suited for a higher standard of employment. Currently, the education offered in
our universities is highly academic. Between 46 public Universities in Bangladesh, we are
currently producing thousands of graduates every year, yet so many of them remain
unemployed due to a lack of soft and hard skills relevant to their field.

A policy will be made through UGC, so that all universities introduce basic skill course for all
graduates, and specialized practical skill courses relevant for a particular field.

Countries that have focused towards skill based education have seen a rapid decline in
unemployment. The US, the leading country in the world in providing skill based education,
had an unemployment rate of 8.3% in January, 2012; as of January 2020 it is 3.6%.

We would also include beginner level technical skill learning opportunities at the secondary
education level, so that students of colleges and schools can also have a basic understanding
of technical skills necessary for jobs, as currently under 10% secondary students currently
have such opportunities.
There are many OECD countries where the educational planning is tuned to the requirement
of job market, a meaningful balance between the supply and demand of skilled manpower to
maintain sustain growth level. These also ensure equity in income distribution and an
enhance standard of living. Finland is a classic example where manpower planning ensures a
smooth supply of skilled manpower in various sectors of the economy. The current
enrolment in Finland’s upper secondary vocational schools is over 42 per cent. The students
are enrolled for three years to earn a vocational degree. The course consists of coursework
and on-the job learning that prepares the students for a specific trade; because general
course work is only 25 per cent. About 75 per cent of the course work is vocational.  Students
acquire basic skills in their field and are often gained specialized competencies in one area of
the field. Students have the option to attend polytechnic college or even can earn a Master’s
degree. The Finnish National Board of Education responsible for developing VET design long
term plan on manpower requirement in industry’s requirement and regularly monitor for
modification for about fifty vocational qualifications. The fields are Technology and Transport,
Business and Administration; Health and Social Services and Tourism and Catering. 
Another country is Germany where you see dual-track vocational training program known as
VET. Most of Germany's highly-skilled workforce has gone through the dual system of
vocational education and training (VET). The two components endowed the workers with
enough on-the job work experience in a factory and theoretical knowledge in a vocational
school. The apprentices spend 60 per cent of their time in their work place and 40 per cent in
the classroom. Over one third of students graduating from secondary schools enter a
vocational training program; one third of which complete a single-track school based VET and
the rest pursue dual-track program. It is important to note that over 50 per cent of the
Germany’s workers are skilled, trained in VET.

Bridging the Quality Gap between Universities

According to the UGC, Bangladesh currently has 46 Public Universities whose goal is to provide
quality tertiary education to students. Yet, there are massive quality differences between these
universities. Among the root causes is the prioritization of universities when it comes to budget
allocation. According to the fiscal year reports of the UGC, the budget inequality between
universities is not only being maintained, but also increasing.
 Figure 1: Allocation of budget funds circa 2018-2019

The Government will take steps to increase the quality of all aspects in Public universities.
From the quality of the teaching staff, the supply and maintenance of equipment; to the
improvement of infrastructure in and around these universities. As for Private Universities, the
Government and the UGC will set a quality standard with which all Private Universities will
have to comply.
By taking these steps, the government will ensure that students of all universities have the
same skills and qualifications as well as opportunities when they graduate.

Lowering the cost of Enterprise and ensuring safety

Due to a number of reasons such as: political instability, lack of access to finance, corruption,
inefficient bureaucracy; maintaining a firm in Bangladesh is not easy. According to Simon
Djankov’s “Ease of Doing Business Index”, Bangladesh ranks 168th as of 2018, with a grading
of “Below Average”.
 Figure 2:Top obstacles towards enterprise in Bangladesh[7]

As the government, the first steps would be to create more jobs by making life easier for
aspiring businessmen. The government would allow easy and online registration of trade
license and would reduce unnecessary paperwork to smoothen the process of starting a
business. The government will also make credit available at low interest to small businesses,
lower the minimum amount of capital needed to start a business, strive to reduce the
inefficiency of administration, prioritize commodities like electricity and water so that the
businesses can keep functioning.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship
In order to eliminate educated unemployment, the government will encourage
entrepreneurship by creating an entrepreneur-friendly economy. This will not only include
government policy, but also training programs for aspiring entrepreneurs, a regulatory
framework, ease of funding and capital for these entrepreneurs etc. By taking these steps, the
government will create an “Entrepreneurship Ecosystem”, a system which eases the process
of entrepreneurship.
Figure 3: Characteristics of Entrepreneurship Economy

The Government will encourage entrepreneurship among university students and graduates
at the grassroots level, providing them with the necessary skills and know-hows of
entrepreneurship and ensuring the availability of monetary and technological support.