Average skills gap in 10 Bangla industries 30%, 53.74% in RMG units

The study called for initiating training programmes to gradually move towards technologically sophisticated industries.

Ten industrial sectors in Bangladesh have an average skills gap of about 30 per cent, with the gap rising with the level of technological sophistication of the sectors, says a Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) study, which found that 53.74 per cent of surveyed readymade garment (RMG) factories were facing skills gap in general.

BIDS recently unveiled the findings of the study, titled ‘Labour market studies for skills for employment investment programme (SEIP)’, at a workshop in Dhaka. SEIP is a project of the finance ministry.

The ten sectors covered in the study are agro processing, health care, hospitality and tourism, RMG and textile, constructions, leather, light engineering, shipbuilding and electronics.

The share of workers with training in the 10 sectors in a year was 1.35 per cent, lower than the national average of 3.65 per cent, Bangladeshi media outlets reported citing the study.

It cited the present situation in the readymade garments sector and said female workers were more proficient than male ones in the female-dominant industries and skills gap was also found to be higher for senior-level technical positions.

The study covered 117 agro processing enterprises with 41,546 employees and found a total export to output ratio per enterprise around 3 per cent. Higher skills gap existed for higher paid jobs like managers and professionals, it found.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)