Pakistan delegation’s Dhaka tour ends

A high-level Pakistan delegation ended their Dhaka visit on Saturday after learning lessons in structuring apprenticeships in the informal sector, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said.

The 14 member delegation, comprising Pakistan’s public and private sector officials, met with the representatives of Bangladesh Technical Education Board, National Skills Development Council, Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, Directorate of Technical Education, BRAC and a number of informal employers and training institutions during their five-day tour.

ILO says they have been here to learn about how the government and industry are working together through ILO’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Reform Project to structure apprenticeships in the informal sector and trades like motorcycle servicing, mobile phone servicing, tailoring and dressmaking.

In South Asia, more than 80 percent of the total labour force is engaged in the informal economy.

The rate is 87 percent among Bangladesh’s wage labourers, self-employed persons, unpaid family labour, and piece-rate workers.

“Learners are often exploited, as unstructured apprenticeships can continue for years without learners being equipped with any real skills,” ILO says.

The government, non-government, and private sector are working to change this by introducing structured pathways to learn skills, it says.

“We have had a number of successes since the project began in 2007, one of the most recent being the graduation of 1000 skilled apprentices in the informal sector with the help of BRAC and UNICEF,” said Arthur Shears, Chief Technical Advisor of the Reform Project.

Chairperson of the Pakistan Trade Testing Board Nabeela Saeed Kazmi said: “What we have learnt from Bangladesh on this mission will definitely help skills development in Pakistan. We have similar training systems, but Pakistan has not yet developed a National Skills Development Policy”.

“One thing that really stood out for us was seeing industry, non-government and government organizations working together to make the best use of all the infrastructure they have to skill young people in the informal sector.

“Bangladesh is also slowly shifting from curriculum-based learning to competency-based learning and we want to do that in Pakistan. It is also encouraging to see so many women engaged in Bangladesh’s labour force,” Kazmi said.