How can the population of our country can be turned into manpower ?

We are known that the main asset of our country is our human resource. It is the
driving force of a country's development. Turning our population into manpower
means that the country's largest population is utilized as a tool for the development
of the country through the necessary facilities. Efficient man power is an essential
element of economic development of a country.

Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says, the working
population in Bangladesh which is 15 to 64 years old, is 66 percent of the total
population of 160 million. And in 2030 it will grow to 124 million, which is 70
percent of the total population. There is a chance for the country's economic
development by utilizing this enormous workforce. But the main problem of
Bangladesh is to use them properly.

Meanwhile, it has started to be clear that this huge population can become a liability
for lack of proper management, quality education and training.
So,now I want to discuss some factors which is to be developed to increase
manpower in Bangladesh.

Education & Unemployment :

Every year several lakh students are coming out of university with a view to
entering the job markets. Many are entering while in many cases they are not
getting jobs according to their education and qualification. The children here have
capacity to get international standard education.A large number of Bangladeshi
boys and girls are going for higher education aboard receiving scholarship. At the
same time, large number of students cant even continue their study after primary
education.

It is a matter of concern - the large part of our working population is unemployed.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), currently more than 2.6
million people of Bangladesh are unemployed. Besides, 1.5 million new faces are
annually participating in the job race. To overcome this situation, we need to
change our education system.
Now the interest of education is increased among the people of the country. But
everyone wants to be just graduate or postgraduate. Most of the pedestrians in
Bangladesh have BA and MA degree. It is optimistic. But their quality of education
is a matter of controversy. It is determining factor as to whether such degree is
helpful in securing job.

So, foreigners are being hired for many top positions in the private sector. Adept
workers from neighbouring countries are working in the country’s multinational
establishments, service and medical sectors and in top posts of garments industries.
In this place, the state will have to adopt simultaneous measures. The education
system should be for human resources development. Education should be based on
realistic, based science and technology.

Skilled Manpower :

Experts says that not only educational qualification and but also extra skills are
needed to get job. Every year only technically skilled people of different
universities of our country are getting jobs.The inhabitants of India, Sri Lanka and
Philippine are doing well. Apart from English, they are fluent in the language of
host country. It is learnt that the inhabitants of India are holding key positions in
many organisations of the international market . Where It is difficult for the people
of Bangladesh to compete with them with their inefficiency & sycophant behaviour.

This huge population may emerge as the greatest asset of the country if they can be
transformed into workforce through proper management, appropriate education and
genuine training. Lion’s share of this population is youth. Through them all dreams
and prospects can be Foreseen.

Labour quality :
Investors claim that there are many employment opportunities in the country but
they are not getting proficient workers. We are going to productivity sector from the
agriculture sector slowly. But efficient manpower is not available in this sector. We
are looking forward to the world markets. But we have no capacity to supply skilled
workers if they want because we have no skilled manpower.
The country's labour force is the human resources of the country .Sources said
around 80 lakh Bangladeshis are working abroad. In the past employment was
available for unskilled or semi-skilled Bangladeshis in different labour markets
including the Middle East. But due to tough competition in these markets ,getting
jobs has become difficult without skill and proficiency. Time has changed. The use
of technology decreased dependence on manual labour. People working abroad
send 17 Billion remittances in a year. If they were skilled, the remittance would
reach $ 30-40 billion. Bangladesh is failing to supply such sufficient skilled workers
for the world market.

Raising the number of proficient manpower, market diversification and simplifying

the migration process are essential to explore the true evolution of this sector.Adept
manpower is always on demand throughout the world, so both the government and
the private sector should move in that direction in a planned manner. Intensive
vocational training should be provided to those who are set to go abroad for
employment.Besides vocational training, they should be provided with basic
knowledge about the culture, language and tradition of the country where they are
going to be employed.

More training institutes should be established at upazila level. There is a huge

demand for trained nurses in the Middle East particularly in Saudi Arabia and more
nursing institutes should be established to export nurses in greater number.
Knowledge on information technology (IT) is another important requirement for
human resource development.

Women Empowerment
Women are half of our population, so making them highly educated and efficient
through empowering them is necessary.Nowadays woman safety is cautious.Our
population can’t be turned into man power if half of our population can’t progress
independently & safely.
However, the positive side is that the number of Bangladeshi women workers is
rising. Some 1 lakh women moved to different countries in 2017, which was about
12 per cent of the total migration and 4.6 per cent higher than the previous year.
But, after being employed many of these women faced harassment by their
employers. Necessary clauses should be incorporated in the employment agreement
so that female workers get due protection from the authorities of the concerned
countries.
However, the government has taken various steps or programmes to transform
huge population into manpower :
According to the Expatriate Welfare Ministry, about 9.5 lakh youths have been
trained through Bangladesh Institute of Marine technology and Technical Training
Center (TTC) under the Bureau of Manpower Export and Training (BMET).

Besides, projects have been undertaken to set up a total of five institutes of marine
technology in Munshiganj, Chandpur, Bagerhat, Faridpur and Sirajgonj Districts
and 30 new TTCs to be established across the country.
A few thousands of skilled manpower will be developed every year. Though late
but finally the government has laid much importance on developing skilled
manpower.
Not only seting up training centers across the country, but also the government
should closely monitor whether the centers are performing well in generating
skilled manpower .

If the country's population is illiterate and inefficient, then the country's

development is not possible. Countries which have been able to convert the
population into manpower, those countries have progressed economically. There is
no alternative to development of a country without development of human
resources .