‘Technical training for young people can develop human capital’

State Minister for Youth and Sports, Zahid Ahsan Russell, has said robust human capital can be developed with technical training for the country's youth, urging the combined efforts of relevant government, private, and non-profit agencies to achieve this goal.

The government has taken various initiatives to ensure self-employment for youths, Zahid said Thursday at the Brac Centre in the capital, calling on relevant stakeholders to seek out those young people who need education and technical training.

He was speaking at the celebration ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of Brac's Skill Training for Advancing Resources (STAR) programme. The programme helps unschooled teenagers and other young people get internships at local businesses to gain practical work experience.

So far, the STAR training programme has helped develop technical skills of 120 thousand young people.

Brac Executive Director Asif Saleh said technical training can play a major role in the country's economic development. The training can significantly help eradicate unemployment, and ensure women's empowerment.

In contributing towards women's empowerment, training has proved to be more effective for women participants than for their male counterparts and about 60% of the women trainees claimed to benefit from the programmes. These women had no other opportunity to get an economic lifeline other than through technical training.

The training has boosted savings habit among women by six times compared to male participants, increased employment for unmarried women by 43%, and reduced chances of child marriages by 62%. Training has also helped delay early pregnancies.

Also present at the Brac event were, Md Nuruzzaman Sharif, ndc, director general and joint secretary, Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE), and Dr Md Omar Faruque, director general and additional secretary, Directorate of Technical Education, among others.