Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The government has launched a training programme to develop 30,000 professionals for the IT and ITES sectors within the next three years.
The Leverage ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT) Project and Professional Services Company Ernst & Young (EY) jointly arranged the launching of Top-UP IT training and ITES Foundation Skills Training programme at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital Dhaka on Saturday.
Under the training programme, 10,000 IT and science graduates will get IT training, while 20,000 HSC and graduates will get ITES foundation skills training.
The World Bank funded LICT Project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) has appointed EY to impart Top-up IT training to a total of 30,000 youngsters.
Addressing the launching function, Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Professor AK Azad Chowdhury said 30,000 youngsters of the country are getting world class IT training from a reputed global firm at a time when the government has put its best endeavour to implement the vision of Digital Bangladesh by 2021.
Presiding over the function, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the training will meet the demands of skilled manpower for the IT industry and boost the country’s IT export. “The trained youngsters would help Bangladesh achieve its target of $1 billion export earnings from the ICT sector within five years.”
The main feature of the training is the commitment to provide jobs at home and abroad about 6,000 (60pc) out of the 10,000 trained IT and science graduates.
EY will be partnering with US-based Info Learning, which is amongst the largest IT training companies in the world. We’ll also be working closely with leading universities in Europe and the US to provide quality training and employability-linked skill development, said Partner, Performance Improvement of EY Anurag Malik.
The World Bank (WB) is providing $70 million to LICT project with an aim to catalyse the growth of Bangladesh’s IT and ITES industry and create employment. The initiative targets to develop skilled manpower for IT and ITES sectors and assist in export diversification. The project was launched in February 2013 for implementation within five years.
The WB, in its cost benefits analysis of the training component in the project concluded that direct employment of 30,000 graduates would lead to indirect employment of about 120,000 people.
BBN/SSR/AS-31Jan15-11:30 pm (BST)