Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon has said that, in order to achieve sustainable national development, a skilled workforce is essential.
He made the remark during the regional round of the Skills and Innovation Competition for the Rajshahi region held on Saturday at Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute, aiming to foster talent, skills, and innovative capacity among technical education students.
Emphasising the importance of skilled manpower, he said, “Sustainable economic progress is not possible without creating a skilled workforce. Just as countries like Japan and Germany have advanced through skills development, we must also move forward in the same way.”
“Our goal is not merely certification, but to develop skills that are directly linked to employment and competitive in the global labour market,” he added.
“Technical education is no longer an alternative stream; it is now a key driver of our national development,” the minister said in his speech.
The minister said transforming youth into skilled, innovative, and technology-driven human resources is a top government priority, with technical education as the main pathway for this transformation.
Before the event, the education minister interacted with students and teachers, inquiring about their current conditions and seeking suggestions on improving technical education quality.
Students from 28 technical education institutions in the Rajshahi region presented 84 innovative projects, from which the best six innovations were selected to participate in the national-level competition scheduled for 17 May in Dhaka.
The competition is organised by the ASSET Project, implemented by the Directorate of Technical Education under the Technical and Madrasah Education Division of the Ministry of Education.
Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon attended as chief guest, while Technical and Madrasah Education Division Secretary Md Daud Mia was special guest. Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner ANM Bazlur Rashid chaired the session.
The regional competition also featured a colourful rally, a seminar on the importance of technical education, and a prize-giving ceremony.
Earlier, the institutional round of the competition was held nationwide on 27 September 2025, across 211 technical education institutions, with around 10,000 students presenting 3,209 innovative projects. Three projects from each institution were selected for the regional rounds.
Following the regional rounds, 50 innovative projects selected from eight regions will compete at the national level in Dhaka on 17 May.
