The activities of the Accelerating and Strengthening Skills for Economic Transformation (ASSET) project being implemented by the Directorate of Technical Education under the Technical and Madrasa Education Division of the Ministry of Education with funding from the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank are ongoing from July, 2021 to December, 2026. The main objective of the project is to accelerate the economic development of the country by reducing unemployment by providing skill enhancement training to the youth, workers, women, differently able people, ethnic communities, backward and disadvantaged people of the country in line with the needs of the country and international labor market. To achieve this goal, the project will strengthen the infrastructure of technical and health educational institutions located in the country and provide necessary skill enhancement training through various technical and health educational institutions throughout the country to meet the industry's demand-based and up-to-date skilled manpower.
ASSET project for enhancement of quality of technical and health education including providing grant or sanction for modernization of laboratories, classrooms etc. of diploma level technical and health educational institutions, providing training for teaching staff at home and abroad, providing digital learning tools for students, educational institutions and industries Many activities have been undertaken including strengthening the relationship between the students, visiting industrial factories for the completion of hands-on practical training, skills competition for the development of students' intelligence and thinking, organizing job fairs to reduce the unemployment rate. In addition, various activities will be implemented including providing training raw materials, equipment, incentives for trainers, and trainees and providing training to teachers and officials under the project for short training institutions, previous experience certification institutions and enterprises.
To make the country economically prosperous by utilizing the manpower of the country and to make the country a developed country by 2041, we have to give special importance to technical education addressed by Mr. Md. Mohsin, Project Director (Additional Secretary), ASSET Project today 15 September 2022 (Thursday) at Bangladesh - Korea Technical Training Center, Chittagong the regional workshop organized by ASSET project.
There is no substitute for technical education and technical knowledge to transform the potential youth society of Bangladesh into youth power. The ASSET project will work towards increasing the technical and financial capacity of the technical institutions concerned with transforming this promising youth into youth power.
Miss Yoko Nagashima, Senior Education Economist of World Bank, the donor of the project, said that the World Bank has been a partner in the development of Bangladesh since its birth. He expressed optimism that the benefits of ASSET project will play a significant role in the socio-economic development of Bangladesh.
Dhaka representative of donor organization World Bank and task team leader of the project Dr. Md. Mokhlesur Rahman said that the World Bank will support Bangladesh through the ASSET project to ensure the participation of women for the social development of Bangladesh. At the same time, in keeping with the global climate change, Green Skills (Environment friendly skills) are emphasized on technical education. All the economically developed countries in the world are pioneers in the field of technology. By capitalizing on technical education, developed world countries have become the best countries in the world economically. We also need to give priority to technical education only then we will succeed in achieving economic success, he added.
Mr. Md Abdur Rahim, Additional Project Director (Deputy Secretary) of the project was also present in the workshop. He discussed the project in detail. Around 80 participants attened the event including head of the institutes of government and privtae polytechnic Institutes, technical School and colleges, technical training centers, Institutes of helath technology, Institutes of Marine technology, Nursing institutes etc.