Grameen Shikkha-CISD Training Centre Launched
Dr Yunus for exploring opportunities for youth
Bangladesh can expect higher remittances if it can export skilled manpower, Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus said yesterday.
“The Bangladeshi youth are very creative and are quick learners. We should explore new opportunities for them,” said Yunus, while highlighting the role of youth in solving social problems.
Yunus’s comments came at the launch of the “Grameen Shikkha-CISD Vocational Training Centre” in Savar.
“We are not teaching in the academic sense, rather we are creating skilled manpower,” Yunus said.
Gerben De Jong, the ambassador of Netherlands to Bangladesh, emphasised the need for skill development among the youth.
“We are thinking of working with the private sector for the development of Bangladesh.”
Grameen Shikkha, with financial assistance from the Netherlands-based C&A Europe, has been conducting a vocational training programme since 2008 for the country’s poor and the school dropouts, said Nurjahan Begum, managing director of Grameen Shikkha.
Nurjahan said the programme is conducted as a form of social business.
The organisation has trained more than 2,300 students on vocations such as electronics, industrial swing, mobile phone servicing, garment machine mechanics, computer, solar home management and computer applications, she said.
Most of the graduates find employment within a couple of months after graduation, Nurjahan said.
“The objective of the programme is to develop the human resource of Bangladesh with a view to expanding the country’s economic development,” said C&A’s Director Chris Brenninkmeyer.
The programme empowers the youth from the rural and slum areas as it provides vocational training at a minimal cost, he added.
Grameen Shikkha also started a scholarship management programme with a unique idea of Prof Yunus from 2002, Nurjahan said.
Nearly 180 sponsors have given financial support to more than 3,500 students in all districts of Bangladesh, according to the Grameen Shikkha MD.
“Without the Grameen Shikkha scholarship I could not have continued my study as I lost my father and mother in 2008 and 2009,” said Zinnoory Begum, a student of management and information system at Dhaka University.
Zinnoory, the middle child of her parents, have been receiving Tk 4,166 every month since May 2010 for her education.
“It is difficult for my father, an auto rickshaw driver, to bear the educational expenses of his five children,” said Khadiza Akter Nishat, a student of department of textile engineering at Bangladesh University of Business and Technology.
Grameen Shikkha has awarded Nishat a bursary of Tk 3,000 per month. Rokia Afzal Rahman, president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was also present.
-With The Daily Star input
