DWOHA CHOWDHURY

As soon as the coronavirus pandemic hit Bangladesh in early 2020, thousands of people, mostly in the informal sector, lost their jobs.

One of them is Rasel Miah. He lost his job at a workshop as soon as the government imposed the nationwide shutdown.

Unemployed for over a year, he heard non-governmental organisation Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programmes (UCEP) Bangladesh offering a training in Sylhet and enrolled.

“After completing the automobile servicing course at UCEP, I got my job back at the same workshop where I was working. But now, I am being paid Tk 3,000 more,” he said.

The vocational training was a part of a Re-skilling and Employment Reintegration Programme of UCEP Bangladesh.

The programme was launched on December 2020 in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bangladesh (SCB) and hundreds of youths from around the country are being reintegrated into the workforce through reskilling.

According to a study conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) in 2020, around 57 per cent of people working in informal sectors became unemployed and 32 per cent faced reduced incomes due to the pandemic.

While many returned to work after the shutdown was withdrawn, thousands still remain unemployed.

The programme aimed to reskill those unemployed youths who were between the ages of 18 years to 35 years and reintegrate them into the workforce.

In the first three phases of the programme, 1,600 people from Rajshahi, Rangpur and Khulna divisions received training in welding, mechanical and electrical services, tailoring and automobile servicing. Around 91 per cent of them have already secured employment.

The fourth phase of the programme is progressing in Sylhet division now, with 278 people of Sylhet district having already received training and in the process of being reintegrated.

Moreover, as the region was recently hit by a devastating flood, 222 flood-hit people from Sunamganj and Habiganj are also planned to be reskilled and reintegrated.

According to UCEP Bangladesh, before selecting beneficiaries for trainings, they conduct a rapid needs assessment.

Then they form each group of beneficiaries making sure that 50 per cent are women, 50 per cent men, 50 rural people and 2 per cent people differently abled.

UCEP Bangladesh, with the support of the SCB, also extended food packages to the beneficiaries four times during the training.

Joly Begum is another beneficiary who lost her job at a biscuit factory during the pandemic. After receiving training from UCEP Bangladesh, she got a new job at a battery factory named Suntec Energy.

“After the training, I got the job placement here and the management is happy with my and others’ performances,” she said during a conversation at her workplace recently.

“We train them in the trades that are high in demand and ensure their employment by communicating with the companies,” said Mohammad Kayum Mollah, acting regional manager of UCEP Bangladesh in Sylhet.

“One-time financial help does not benefit for long,” said Bitopi Das Chowdhury, head of corporate affairs of the SCB.

“That’s why, being a force for good, we are engaging in such programmes where we can help people with something sustainable and might help them become successful and solvent,” she said.