Mapping and analysis of growth-oriented industrial sub-sectors and their skill requirements in Bangladesh

Khan, Md Abu NashirKDI School of Public Policy and Management

Content

1. Country profile

2. Introduction

3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce

4. Future Demand for workforce

5. Recommendation

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I. Country Profile

BangladeshPopulation: 160 million

GDP Growth : 6.03%

Total Labor force: 72.5 million

Unemployment Rate: 5%

Total Vocational Institute s : 3116

(BANBEIS 2014)

Ref: WDI, 2014

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II. Introduction

• With continued high rates of population and labor force growth, Bangladesh has an abundant supply of labor.

• Intended to identify: (i) sectors that are competitive and demonstrate growth potential; and (ii) the type of skills that will be required by these sectors in the coming years.

• For the purpose, an analysis was undertaken of the growth pattern, export performance, employmentand productivity of manufacturing sub-sectors.

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2. Introduction 2.I. Subsector Selection

Sector selected on the basis of GAV. Ranks of sub-sectors have changed over the year(Table-1). Drastic rise in importance are: • drugs and pharmaceuticals (from 6th in 1996 to 2nd );

• pottery and chinaware (from 22nd to 7th); • furniture and fixtures (from 21st to 8th). • textile manufacturing moved from 1st to 3rd position;

• leather has gone down compared to 1996, but has improved in comparison to 1991.

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Table: 1 List of Sub Sector

Source: ILO, 2012

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3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce 3.1 Skill composition of workforce

• Highly skilled and skilled workers account for nearly two-thirds of total employment in the selected sub-sectors (Table-2).

• Vacancies in skilled occupations varies widely from 0.34 per cent in leather to 8.2 per cent in furniture indicating that there exists excess demand for skills in these sub-sectors predominantly in furniture, food manufacturing and IT.

• The average training time required for skilled workers is 8.22 months ranging from 5.4 months in textiles to 13.5 months in food manufacturing.

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Table 2: Skill composition of workforce

ILO , 2012

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3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce 3.2 National criteria for the qualification levels of workers

General Education :

Education system broadly divided into three major stages, viz. primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) :

The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Bangladesh operates at Certificate (secondary) and Diploma (higher secondary) level (Figure -3)

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Table: 3 Education system of Bangladesh

Source BANEIS, 2014

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3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce

3.3 National Skill Standard (NSS)

• In 1984, 37 NSS with respect to 13 basic engineering trades (most of which were being taught in the training institutes) were approved by the National Council for Skill development and Training(NCSDT).

• Each trade was normally covered with a three-tier standard, NSS Grade-III (semi-skilled), Grade-II (skilled) and Grade-I (highly skilled).

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Table 4: National skills standards

Source: ILO, 2012

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3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce 3.4 Qualification profile of workers

• Table 5 shows 58.57 per cent of the workers have no qualification and only 13.17 per cent of them have diploma/advanced diploma with 28.26 per cent of them having certificates.

• Non-qualified workers are most predominant in ceramics (95.4 per cent) followed in order by food manufacturing (86.9 per cent), leather (78.93 per 52 cent) and textiles (69.4 per cent). While pharmaceuticals accounts for the lowest proportion of non-qualified workers, IT records no non-qualified workers.

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Table 5: Qualification profiles of workers in the sub-sectors

Source: ILO, 2012

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3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce 3.5 Qualifications levels assignable to fresh TVET graduates

Table 6 : Comparative analysis of TVET graduates

• The survey reveals that 30 (83.33 per cent) out of 36 enterprises employ TVET graduates.

• An equal number of enterprises prefer to recruit TVET graduates. According to most of the enterprises, TVET graduates are doing better work (Table 6).

• Less than half of the enterprises surveyed reported that the supply of trained graduates from the TVET system, irrespective of public or private providers, is adequate

• This suggests that there is either inadequacy in the number of training institutes and teachers/ trainers or underutilization of the existing capacity

Source:ILO, 2012

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3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce 3.6 TVET Training quality

More than one-third of the enterprises reported that training quality is adequate (Tables 7) implying that the problem of poor training quality figures very prominently in most cases.

Table 7: Factors accounting for inadequate supply, quality and relevance for the formally trained workers (ILO, 2012)

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3. Mapping and Analysis of workforce 3.7 Skills gaps of the workers

• Number of skills gaps in workers from different occupations.

• Most important - lack of basic knowledge, lack of industrial behavior and technical job skill. These skill gaps are most prominent in IT, food manufacturing, transport equipment and textiles (Table 8).

• Among other skill gaps, while lack of accuracy is most predominant in food manufacturing, lack of knowledge of machine maintenance is dominant in leather and textiles.

• The occupations in which these skill gaps exist are presented in Table 9

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Table 8 : Frequency distribution of occupations by areas of current skills gaps of the workers (Rahman ,2007)

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Table 9 : Occupation of current skills gaps

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5. Future Demand for workforce

• The survey enterprises recommend some potential trade areas for improving the supply of skilled TVET graduates. These trades by sectors are presented in Table-10.

• All these trades relate to shop floor production activities. This amounts to saying that there is virtually no dearth of skills in occupations other than production

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Table10: Potential areas for improving the supply of skilled TVET graduates (ILO, 2012)

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5. Future Demand for workforce5.1 Factors affecting future demand for skills

Important factors affecting the future demand of skill workforce: • Labor turnover • Capacity expansion • New technology • Better product quality

The enterprise survey finds that 30 (83.33 per cent) out of 36 survey enterprises are planning to expand their production capacity within the next 2-3 years (Table 11). This will greatly contribute to an increase in their future demand for skilled workers. For all practical purposes, wide skill base of the workforce is a critical component of the expansion of physical capital and its productive capacity.

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Table 11 : Factors contributing to future demand for skilled workers and occupations

(ILO,2012)

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Recommendations • In order to effectively rise to the challenges of sub-sectoral skill demand, SWCs be established. SWCs will identify occupational areas where more personnel are needed and articulate employer and industry requirements.

• Use of training funds can spur reallocation of resources to high priority activities and clientele, and stimulate competition between public and private training providers. It is recommended that the skills that are immediately needed by the labor market be assessed, the relevant training program identified, and the training package delivered.

• Labor market analysis and tracer studies are important for proper direction and feedback to the training systems. Training program to be offered need to be based on the requirements of the respective focus industries.

• Where reform of training systems is undertaken, the establishment of national qualification frameworks will facilitate labor mobility and more efficient use of training resources. There is a need to complement development of the vocational qualifications framework and to support CBT and develop CBT curricula.

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Recommendations

Strategic• Private Sector-Led and Market-Driven TVET program

• Pro-Active Job-Skills Matching (SEEK-FIND-TRAIN

• Life Long Learning Mechanism and Articulation

• Expanding Scholarships and Other Incentive Support Services

• Competency-based TVET

• Enhancing Quality Assurance Mechanisms

• Entrepreneurship in TVET

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References

• BANEIS 2014, Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information & Statistics, 2014

• Rahman, R. I., 2007. Labour Market in Bangladesh, Changes, Inequities and Challenges, Research Mongraph 21, BIDS.

• International Labour Office (ILO), 2012. Employment Sector Employment Report-17,. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/gea

• WDI,2014. World Bank development Indicators, World Bank , Washington DC

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