The world labour market is passing through a historic transition, where skills, certification, and technical expertise have become more important than the sheer supply of labour. Economies worldwide are facing severe labour shortages due to aging population, falling birth rates, rapid technological changes, and restructuring in the post-pandemic era. Global labour forecasts suggest that by 2030, advanced economies may face a shortage of 40–50 million skilled and semi-skilled workers in key sectors. Bangladesh, with its young and growing labour force combined with a rising base of technical education, stands at a strategic crossroad. If supported by the right policies and partnerships, the country can move beyond merely exporting low-wage manpower and emerge instead as a dependable global supplier of skilled human capital, thereby creating mass employment, securing higher remittances, and ensuring sustainable economic growth.
For decades, Bangladesh ranked worldwide for being a labour-sending country, particularly to the GCC states which still heavily rely on foreign labour force for sustainability. More than a million Bangladeshi workers are deployed annually, resulting in serving as an economic support robustly for macroeconomic stability, including supporting forex reserves for millions of citizens. However, the current trends and characteristics of migration from Bangladesh have exhibited a grave weakness where most workers sent are low-skilled and semi-skilled, impacting their earning capacity and, therefore, lower remittances per migrant. The Philippines, Vietnam, and India have strategically ensured that their migrant workers’ skill sets are up-scaled through sector-specific skill development, language proficiency, and internationally recognised certifications, enabling migrant workers to be gainfully employed, making remittances sent home higher on an unskilled labourer basis.
In order to tap these markets in scale and credibility, Bangladesh must adopt to put public-private partnerships (PPP) central to its workforce development strategy because the country’s public sector organisations alone cannot keep pace with the requirements of the international workforce in terms of the level of specialisation and quality. The role of the public sector in workforce development is policy leadership, international negotiations, and standard setting and regulation. The work of private sector training institutions, organisations, and companies must dominate execution, innovation, and alignment to the international market requirements. PPP mechanisms, therefore, can bring sectoral centres of excellence in fields in which competency-based training is delivered to international standards, foreign language training, and work experience through apprenticeships and industry placements. More important is the involvement of foreign employers and organisations from the conceptualisation level to ensure that the training is aligned to the requirements.
The issue of certification and the accreditation of skills is equally important. There is a high number of Bangladeshi labourers with considerable hands-on experience in their fields of work. However, they do not receive the certification and accreditation accepted abroad. PPP-based solutions may include modes of dual certification for skills developed. The workers may be certified and accredited at home and globally. Jobs like nursing assistants, electricians, welders, caregivers, construction technicians, and IT support staff may be ideal. Digital technologies managed jointly by government agencies and other stakeholders may include secure modes of storing and recording certification for skills and experience in various fields. This will be instrumental in promoting a positive image of Bangladesh as a source of reliable and trustworthy workforce.
Remittances currently form a considerable proportion of Bangladesh’s foreign exchange returns and are of considerable stabilising influence in coping with the economic shocks of the international community of countries. In other words, if 30-40 percent of such emigrating staff were allocated skill-based jobs, the average amount of remittances traceable to each of these migrants may increase substantially, thus increasing national remittances by several billion dollars annually. Additionally, national economic benefits from migration are not limited to the short- and medium-term economic benefits described above. Returns of migrating workers, with technical skills, exposure to international culture in an economic working setup, savings, and entrepreneurial inclinations may have significant long-term influences on national economic growth in industries across Bangladesh.
Therefore, the migration policy of development countries must safeguard workers from excessive migration charges, misinformation, and recruitment exploitation. Since well-designed frameworks of public-private partnerships can standardise recruitment fees, enable workers to receive verified job offers, and provide pre-departure information on workers’ rights, occupational safety, and financial education, it is necessary that bilateral and multilateral labour agreements specifically refer to the linkage between labour migration and skills development, mutual recognition, and protection of workers. If migration policy is managed ethically and wisely, it is not just an avenue for providing jobs but also becomes part of the overall development policy of the nation.
The writer is a Deputy Director-Faculty HR, North South University, and Former Vice-President, Dhaka University Journalists Association (DUJA)
