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Employment Support Services provide bridge between industry and vocational students
Bangladeshi companies are finding the skilled staff they badly need through the assistance of Employment Support Services
Employment support Service creates industry-institute linkage as per matching qualification with occupations ©ILOIt needs to recruit approximately 20-25 new factory staff each year. Yet finding quality employees has always been a challenge.
Things started to change in 2016, when for the first time Monno Ceramic recruited 45 skilled employees with the help of the Bangladesh Institute of Glass and Ceramics (BIGC).
Following collaboration with the International Labour Organization’s Bangladesh Skills for Employment and Productivity (B-SEP) project, BIGC has piloted Employment Support Services (ESS) to help its graduates find work in industry which matches their skills. The ESS comprise a Career Guidance and Counselling cell as well as facilitating job placements for new graduates.
Under the pilot, BIGC also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Glass and Ceramic Industry Skills Council that linked the institute with various companies in the sector. This provides BIGC students with the opportunity to carry out industrial placements during their study, giving them hands-on training in the ceramic industry and boosting their employability in the job market.
To help give TVET students more information about where to find jobs, BIGC also developed a directory that provides information about the type of occupations available in the industry with details of job descriptions, educational qualifications and experience requirements for each job.
BIGC has also developed a website with an online job portal through which students can apply to vacancies posted by the different glass and ceramic companies.
Mr. Ali Azam Khan Mojahidi, Junior Instructor (Tech), BIGC said that “Before the establishment of the ESS cell 30-40% of diploma students remained unemployed. However, after the cell was established all students have found jobs.”
Amongst those recruited by Monno Ceramic is 24-year old Shahin Akter Shanta from Sharishabari, Jamalpul in the eastern part of Bangladesh. After the completion of her diploma at BIGC, the Career Guidance and Counselling cell advised her to apply for a position through their Job Portal. There she connected with Monno Ceramic and was recruited as an Apprentice Ceramic Technician in the Quality Control Department on a monthly basic salary of some USD100/BDT8,000.
Another success story is Bishal Mangsang from Madhupur, Tangail. Bishal also got a job as an apprentice at Monno Ceramics through BIGC career guidance. After finishing his apprenticeship and becoming a supervisor in the Body Section he was recently promoted to be in charge of it. Bishal’s basic monthly salary is now USD150/BDT12,000 while he oversees some 80 employees in the department.
Speaking about the importance of this approach, Kishore Singh Chief Technical Advisor of ILO’s Bangladesh Skills for Employment and Productivity (B-SEP) project said, “To date, 40 students from the Bangladesh Institute of Glass and Ceramics have been recruited by Monno Ceramic through Employment Support Services. This type of matchmaking between industry and vocational institution helps supply experienced graduates with the skills business needs most. This approach should be scaled up so that it encompasses all industrial sectors for the benefit of students and the economy alike.”
The Bangladesh Skills for Employment and Productivity (B-SEP) Project is an ILO project funded by the Government of Canada and carried out in close collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh. The initiative aims to make skills in Bangladesh nationally recognized, accessible to all, higher quality and directly linked to jobs.