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Careers in Leather

This week in the Bangladesh English Press more opportunities for training in schools and while at work. Government programmes to support skills training across the country. Workplace safety has improved since 2013. Chittagong beekeepers strike liquid gold.

A weekly round up of articles about employment, the labour market, skills training and workforce development. This week’s round up is drawn from The Daily Star. Here is the news for the week ending 12th May 2016.

This week in the Bangladesh English Press…

…More opportunities for training in schools and while at work. Government programmes to support skills training across the country. Workplace safety has improved since 2013. Chittagong beekeepers strike liquid gold.

Vocational schools getting attention

The Government has begun a programme to restructure technical and vocational education, in the hopes of attracting more students and youth. An additional 100 million USD will be injected into the programme to help graduates find better jobs and to offer free vocational training to more youth. Many youth still have trouble finding work after going through years of schooling in training. By increasing the linkages between schools and firms, this programme hopes to find work for more youth and increase productivity in businesses.

A join initiative between the Aga Khan Foundation and the Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programmes Bangladesh will be setting up a new technical vocational education and training centre in Chittagong.  Programmes from vocational skills training, to four-year diplomas in engineering will be offered at the school, potential serving thousands in the next few years, and increasing the capacity of the workforce in the Chittagong.

New approach on skills training

The Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Skills for Employment Investment Programme have signed an agreement to train workers in factories. In an attempt to boost productivity, a skills training programme will be established within factories that offer free of charge training to employees to increase technical and workplace skills. SEIP will bear most of the cost, however they believe that this deal will diversify the growing manufacturing sector. Better trained workers will lead to more productivity. Furthermore, increased skills can also offer more opportunities for workers to advance in their trade.

Workplace safety improving

Progress in workplace safety reported in EU-Bangladesh business council today. Since the Rana Plaza collapse, European businesses and organizations within Bangladesh, including the government, have committed to inspecting garment factories around the country. The result of this cooperation was the  the Sustainability Compact that the International Labour Organization had brokered to improve conditions for workers after Rana, which Bangladesh has fully committed to. Since 2013, 37 factories were fully closed, and 40 were temporarily shut down, possibly stopping future collapses. While great progress has been made on worker safety and conditions, there is still much to improve on.

Beekeeping success story

Commercial beekeeping has been a success in the Chittagong, where multiple farmers have made profits and been able to scale up operations. A seasonal activity, where most of the production occurs in the spring and the summer seasons, beekeeping has developed into a small growing industry, with low costs and low risks due to the resilience of bees to weather and disease. The bees also serve to increase crop production through pollination, helping local farmers to have healthier crop yields year in, year out.

And that’s the news for the week ending May 12th, 2016.