The government has proposed a Tk683 crore project to train 50,100 unemployed young people in freelancing, but questions have been raised over both the high cost per trainee and the relevance of some of the proposed skills in an increasingly AI-driven job market.
Under the five-year project, titled “Creating Employment through Freelancing Training for Unemployed Youth in All Metropolitan Cities of the Country”, the government plans to spend Tk1,33,620 on training each participant.
The proposed project will cover 13 metropolitan cities and 501 wards, with 2,004 batches of 25 trainees each receiving three months of training. The trades include graphic design, digital marketing, web development, video editing, computer basics and other skills based on market demand.
The Planning Commission has questioned the proposed expenditure, noting that a similar project covering 64 districts has an estimated cost of around Tk1.03 lakh per trainee.
Former BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir also questioned whether the proposed training will meet current market demand.
He said demand for some conventional freelancing skills, including graphic design and certain web development and video-editing tasks, has declined over the past two years as artificial intelligence has increasingly automated such work.
He said training programmes should be designed based on current and future demand in the international market rather than continuing to focus on skills that may become less valuable.
The project’s Development Project Proposal puts the training cost at Tk669 crore 43 lakh 62 thousand. The remaining allocation includes Tk2.17 crore for honorariums, Tk90 lakh for microbus hire and Tk6.76 crore as a prize contingency, bringing the total estimated cost to nearly Tk683 crore.
According to the proposal, at least 60% of the trainees are expected to secure employment, become self-employed or start businesses after completing the training.
The Youth Development Department said the relatively high cost is partly due to the infrastructure and support required to run the programme in metropolitan areas.
Mohammad Humayun Kabir, director (planning) of the department, said the department does not have its own trainers, while the project budget includes trainer salaries, setting up training laboratories and purchasing computers.
Trainees will also receive three meals a day and travel allowances, which are included in the training cost, he said.
The project proposal says Bangladesh has a large working-age youth population and must make timely investments in skills development and employment opportunities before the demographic dividend begins to decline between 2033 and 2040.
Almas, however, said the government should first assess the outcomes of similar freelancing projects implemented in the past before investing such a large amount of public money in another programme.
He also called for third-party audits to assess whether previous projects actually benefited trainees, arguing that self-auditing may not provide an accurate picture.
He stressed that reliable, uninterrupted internet access is also essential for freelancers and should be treated as basic infrastructure. Internet disruptions during the political unrest in 2024, he said, resulted in some foreign work sources shifting to other countries.
The Planning Commission’s socio-economic infrastructure division has asked the authorities to provide justification for the proposed costs. It noted that the estimated cost per batch is Tk33,40,500 and recommended reviewing the expenditure against the ongoing 64-district freelancing training project.
The final cost and scope of the project will depend on the outcome of the appraisal process.
