Title:

Strategies to Develop Human Capital in Bangladesh

in Light of 4th Industrial Revolution.

Zaif Khan Ahon

Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka
April 9th, 2018
 Executive Summary
The shape of Human Capital is going to take a drastic turn with the emergence of the fourth
industrial revolution. Ministry of Labor and Employment is responsible for ensuring
development in this sector. A lot of employment opportunities has opened as a direct result
of overseas migration. Dispersed in 162 countries of the world, at present 1.3 crore
Bangladeshis are employed directly or indirectly. But despite Bangladesh's long experience
with international migration, academic interests in the prospects of labor migration from
Bangladesh has been quite limited to its potential.

As the fourth industrial revolution blurs the physical and digital divide, its impact shall be
perceived upon all levels of socio-economic, industrial, governmental and individual
dimensions. In the context of ASEAN countries, the greatest threat to employment comes in
the form of automation that will make the human resource redundant and replaceable
particularly in China and Bangladesh: two of the leading manufacturing countries in the world.
If we look at the current scenario, it can be obvious for us to deduce that Bangladesh is not
taking much of an initiative towards the fourth industrial revolution. But there are plenty of
ways the fourth industrial revolution can be utilized to develop human capital.

Human capital development starts from as early as the childhood phase of the people as it
represents skills, knowledge, and health that people accumulate over their lives. Encouraging
livestock production will be helpful for child growth due to the increase in dairy production.
Rather than a siloed approach, multisectoral coordination while taking initiatives, in nutrition
interventions is effective. Family planning programs that enable birth spacing reduce demands
on the low maternal nutrient stores in developing countries. We also should focus to
collaborate with programs such as Jhilmili, Proshikkha, Brac Development Programs, UNICEF.

While taking a look at the actual situation regarding education and unemployment, one finds
a rather paradoxical relationship. Higher levels of education are associated with lower levels of
unemployment in developed countries, but not so in developing countries. By introducing
automation technologies, the yield of agriculture sector can be increased, this will ensure two
things together, it will attract the technologically proficient people and make the sector
lucrative enough towards being able to compete with lucrative jobs. We should also look to
introduce vocational and technical education early in junior secondary school to encourage
attaining dual qualification.

For training development activities certification of skill or Apprenticeship (Dual Training

System) has to be promoted). Besides, Branding strategies should be deviced specifically
catered to the Labor Capital with campaigns like "We don't build beams; we build dreams."
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1
2. Background ......................................................................................................................... 1
3. Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 2
3.1 Specific Objective ................................................................................................................. 2
3.2 Broad Objectives .............................................................................................................. 2
4. Human Capital Development in Bangladesh ......................................................................... 2
5. Risks........................................................................................................................................ 4
6. Human capital development: Facing Industrialization 4.0 .................................................... 7
6.1 Impact on the flow of work (instructional design vs learning design) ........................... 10
6.2 Bangladesh’s stand on the Map of fourth Industrial Revolution ................................... 11
7. Human Capital Development Strategies .............................................................................. 14
7.1 Early Childhood Phase .................................................................................................... 14
7.2 A Focus on the Right Kind of Education ......................................................................... 17
7.3 Training Development Activities .................................................................................... 20
8. Branding Human Capital ...................................................................................................... 21
9. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 22
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 23

Table of Figures

Figure 1 Sector Specific Skillset Requirement: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sectors .......................... 3
Figure 2 Sector Specific Skillset Requirement: Quaternary and Quinary Sectors ...................................... 4
Figure 3 Risk on the spectrum of Time and Impact predictability ............................................................. 5
Figure 4 A quote by Professor Klaus Schwab ............................................................................................ 7
Figure 5 Industrial Revolution 4.0: The Forces of Change ......................................................................... 8
Figure 6 The image on the left show the automation potential industrial sector wise in the Asia Pacific
region ...................................................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 7 Percentage of Unemployed Degree Holders in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka ....................... 11
Figure 8 Fourth Industrial Revolution Impact in RMG and Healthcare .................................................... 12
Figure 9 Fourth Industrial Revolution Impact in Agriculture, Banking and Financials and Insurance ...... 13
Figure 10 Percentage of children under 5 who are stunted..................................................................... 14
Figure 11 Employment Distribution by Sectors of Bangladesh 2016-17 (BBS SURVEY) ........................... 18
Figure 12 Unemployment Rate among Adult Citizens ............................................................................ 19
1. Introduction
A mega transition is on the brink of arrival as the Fourth Industrial Revolution begins to

emerge. Investment in human potential will be paramount to tackle the political, economic,

societal challenge that is yet to emerge. Human Capital Management by reducing skill-gap

has to be sped up. But there is an ever growing need to keep an eye out for the future

generation. And that’s why Human Capital Development has a very crucial role to play.

Through this strategic paper, we would research on how skills can be acquired or deployed

through the working life as well as the formative years. The education system and other factors

crucial to development have to be fostered to develop a strong future workforce.

2. Background
One of the government ministries of Bangladesh is the Ministry of Labor and Employment,

responsible for ensuring employment, protecting and safeguarding the worker's interest and

to assist in human resource development. [1] The ministry has to revamp in the coming future

as they have a very role to play for Human Capital Management and Development.

A lot of employment opportunities has opened as a direct result of overseas migration.

Dispersed in 162 countries of the world, at present 1.3 crore Bangladeshis are employed

directly or indirectly. They contribute to an annual remittance over US$ 15 billion to

Bangladesh. [2] Signs are promising for the increasing number of Bangladeshi migrant workers

with plenty of future job prospects in the queue. The positive trend of Migrant outflow in the

recent time is a seemingly important factor to validate the positive perception revealed about

the future of migration. From 2014, overall migration level has been consistently increasing, it

was 409,253 in 2013, and by 2016 it ascended to 757,731, and reaching around 1.3 crores by

2017 – which is the highest outflow of migrants reached in a year. [2] [3]

Human Capital Development is another aspect which has a dire need of addressing. The skill

gap is an ever-present obstacle among the Bangladesh workers resulted due to the divergence

between the required experience and education from the point of view of an employer.

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Education Vs Unemployment paradox, stunting among children, lack of entrepreneurship

development have been barriers to the growth of Human Capital.

3. Objectives
3.1 Specific Objective
1. Finding and exploring demanding job sectors in the international market
2. Identifying specific countries where the manpower of Bangladesh could be utilized

3. Determining the professional skill trade attributes required in designing or

strengthening the prevalent training programs

4. Identify room for improvement of Human Capital Development from the formative

years

3.2 Broad Objectives

1. Analyze the comparative advantages of the labor supplying countries

2. Find sector-specific skill set requirement

3. Explore the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the impact that it will create

to change the total landscape of Human Capital Management

4. Identifying the effects of stunting in the early years and effective ways to address the

concerning situation

5. Promoting Entrepreneurial development

6. Branding migrant workers based on specific trades

7. Suggesting changes in government policies and framework to operate overseas labor

market effectively

4. Human Capital Development in Bangladesh

Despite Bangladesh's long experience with international migration, academic interests in the

prospects of labor migration from Bangladesh has been quite limited to its potential,

particularly when it comes to focusing specifically on the prospects of labor migration,

highlighting major underlying factors, and projecting the future level and trend of migration.

Task-specific human capital: This concept emphasizes the development of human capital

specific to the nature of the task (or, skills required for the task), and the human capital

accumulated for a task is valuable to a firm as they require the transferable skills. This concept

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can be applied to job-assignment, wage dynamics, tournament, promotion dynamics inside

firms, etc. In the next point, we have divided skillset requirement in 5 defining sectors

Figure 1 Sector Specific Skillset Requirement: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sectors

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 Figure 2 Sector Specific Skillset Requirement: Quaternary and Quinary Sectors

5. Risks
Human Capital Development bears some known and unknown risks based on timing and its

impact. Automation is a big example of such an event as we know this will bring change, but

we don’t exactly know when it will take place (however its occurrence is not really far away

now). It will significantly lessen the value of labor power. It is also possible to turn automation

to an advantage. Other events like an election or cultural events can lessen or increase the

type and quantity of human capital needed in a country. These events fall under the category

where we know when it will take place, but we don’t know what the change it will bring. Events

like economy change or factor change (e.g. Namibia is currently driven by mining and if

suddenly their economy shifts towards fishing or agriculture then the whole human capital

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need will shift towards a different type of labor power.) also fall under one of these two

categories. All of these events have to be analyzed before they take place and the possible

consequences of these events have to be addressed. For this, the bigger picture for each

economy has to be provided. An example would be focusing on the economy of the country

and finding out what secondary skill they are looking for, or looking into their trade and finding

out which export goods have an increasing demand so that if they shift their focus towards

that good, we can send trained labor for that sector. Whatever the event is we always have to

find out the characteristics of it in order to adapt. Adaptability will be able to decrease the

threat of change by quite a bit.

Now if we consider “black swan”, we have to look at the events that we don’t know the

characteristics of and when they will take place. For human capital events like disasters are the

most common. Events like destruction and death happen from time to time and if they happen

for the capital that we sent our competitors are sure to take advantage of that. Another type

Figure 3 Risk on the spectrum of Time and Impact predictability

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of event which can be classified as the black swan is the shift in the economy. This can go both

ways and the nature of that change is fairly unpredictable.

The precautions we can take to counter “black swan” events:

• Having simple but effective work diagrams: Making the sector our labor force will work

in simple and centering our skillset if we focus on the construction or RMG sector of

middle east we can do that accordingly.

• Holistic thinking: Having a blueprint which touches every factor connected with the

one that we are dealing with, for example with this divided focus any change in

economy or society will lead to us being ready for any unpredictable events, giving us

an edge over the competitors.

• Mastering the field: To do this sending skilled labor through a filter is one way. As this

will ensure the labors having knowledge themselves on how to avoid the unpredictable

events. Just we having the knowledge isn’t always enough, examples can be in mining

which is very prone to disasters has to be done by labor with mastery, disasters can be

avoided in this way.

It should be noted that even after all these tasks “black swan” can always take place. To make

sure that these events don’t give others a competitive advantage, we need to ‘expect always’.

Being ready for everything can be the best task to counter black swan in the long run.

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6. Human capital development: Facing Industrialization 4.0
The advent of the fourth industrial revolution shall bring about extensive changes through all

industries which will mutate consumption, production, transportation and delivery systems

Figure 4 A quote by Professor Klaus Schwab

along with many other factors. Concurrently, the essence of work is changing: some of it can

be attributed to new technologies and their impact on business models, and some to new

platforms that allow talent to connect and collaborate holistically in markets in contemporary

methods.

It is imperative that visionary leaders from a wide range of skills emerge to guide these changes

for optimal outcome. Unless we develop relevant skills to adapt to the rapidly emerging VUCA

world, we shall not only miss out on the opportunities presented by the revolution but also

experience its disruptions as bystanders. As emerging technologies rattle the labor markets,

this presents the potential to alter the way we learn throughout our lifetimes, how we re-train

those who are facing declining returns to their skills and how we educate the next generation.

Apart from bringing forth robust new data, they are also providing metrics that allow us to

understand the alterations taking place and help manage them better.

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 Figure 5 Industrial Revolution 4.0: The Forces of Change

As the fourth industrial revolution blurs the physical and digital divide, its impact shall be

perceived upon all levels of socio-economic, industrial, governmental and individual

dimensions.

“With every industrial revolution there has been a requirement for a skill change” [4] and

although the same trend is observed with industry 4.0, “this is perhaps the first time that

countries and companies have had to worry about how their manpower will keep up with the

pace of change. Previous revolutions were seen as job and growth creators; with Industry 4.0

there is a concern that it may eradicate jobs and lead to unemployment.” [4]

In the context of ASEAN countries, the greatest threat to employment comes in the form of

automation that will make the human resource redundant and replaceable particularly in China

and Bangladesh: two of the leading manufacturing countries in the world.

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Figure 6 The image on the left show the automation potential industrial sector wise in the Asia Pacific
region

ASEAN countries have historically maintained competitive advantage relying on low skilled,

poorly paid workers.

On the bright side of industry 4.0, it’s correct utilization can unlock productivity gains of 30-

40%. This however crucially depends upon the improvement of labor capabilities. TO take

advantage of the opportunities awaiting at the edge of the era, the workforce needs to be

prepared and equipped with the right skills. “In an ASEAN context, this will represent

unprecedented demands on workforces which need to be addressed for the countries to

remain competitive.” [4].

Industry 4.0’s drive in automation is going to result in two scenarios:

1) Productivity will be much higher for automated systems and countries outside ASEAN

soon will have low-cost production capabilities.

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 2) A massive portion of the employed labor base will be threatened

The impact of this force of change is not limited to low skilled workers, according to a report

published by Mckinsey Global Institute, at least 30% of all activities in 60% of all jobs can be

automated. “That amounts to almost $15 trillion in wages.” [5]. So, in the context of upper

management personnel in corporations, their jobs are more likely to change in nature than be

replaced. Even a CEO’s job is can be automated to the extent of 30%. Regardless of where in

the hierarchal stairs an employee/executive operates, the impacts are bound to affect the

nature of the job.

6.1 Impact on the flow of work (instructional design vs learning design)

Industry 4.0 shall come with an unprecedented amount of uncertainty regarding what skills to

focus on for the future. This shall call for a change in the learning system established today

worldwide. Students and employees can no longer be just told to learn specific topics or skills,

to truly employ the opportunities of industry 4.0, they have to be taught the skill of learning

rather than just teaching and training specific development programs. Below is a comparison

of the Instructional design and the increasingly important learning design.

Instructional design focusses on the ‘creation of learning experiences and materials in a

manner that results in the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills’ [6]. This

discipline strives to find the most efficient way of performing instructions by designing a

curriculum that is assessed on the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning program

developed.

The learning design is bound to become increasingly an important and crucial element in the

human capital management process under the timeline of fourth industrial revolution as this

fosters a learner-centric and collaborative approach ensuring the learner’s ability to adapt to

a rapidly changing market. As machines get “cognified” and learn by itself to become more

efficient, humans need to focus more the learning aspects of creativity and innovation to stay

relevant in the disruptive job market.

“The activities most susceptible to automation are physical ones in highly structured and

predictable environments, as well as data collection and processing” [5] These dire

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consequences of automation will however not happen overnight. Even in the presence and

availability of the technology, it will take years for automation’s effect on current work activities

to play out fully.

6.2 Bangladesh’s stand on the Map of fourth Industrial Revolution

If we look at the current scenario, it can be obvious for us to deduce that Bangladesh is not

taking much of an initiative towards the fourth industrial revolution. They are not taking the

issue seriously. The graph below was made from a World Bank report.

Percentage of Unemployed Degree

Holders

47

33

7.8

Bangladesh India Sri Lanka

Figure 7 Percentage of Unemployed Degree Holders in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka

Instead of acquiring a particular skill set, getting a degree is more important in countries like

Bangladesh. This is mostly because of the degree centric education in this country. The six

billion dollars that foreign six hundred thousand skilled workers remit from Bangladesh is

comparatively way more than the fourteen billion dollars that ten million expatriate workers

remit for Bangladesh [7].

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Figure 8 Fourth Industrial Revolution Impact in RMG and Healthcare

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Figure 9 Fourth Industrial Revolution Impact in Agriculture, Banking and Financials and Insurance

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7. Human Capital Development Strategies
Human capital development starts from as early as the childhood phase of the people as it

represents skills, knowledge, and health that people accumulate over their lives. So, starting

from the strategies for human capital development in the childhood phase identifying the

gaps, the paper will work its way up to more mature levels.

7.1 Early Childhood Phase

New World Bank research released on October 11th, 2018 gives policymakers compelling

evidence that delivering better conditions in children’s health and learning can significantly

boost the incomes of people with high returns in the future. [8]

A Human Capital Index launched on the same day shows that 56 percent of children born

today around the world will lose more than half their potential lifetime earnings because

governments are not making effective investments in their people to ensure an educated and

healthy population ready for the workplace of the future.

Figure 10 Percentage of children under 5 who are stunted

Source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Dataset, May 2018

Bangladesh performed better than the South Asian average in all criteria except for Stunting.

In Bangladesh, stunting and quality of education hold back a child for achieving its full

potential and with present education and health conditions, a child born today in

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Bangladesh will be 48 percent as productive as it could have been. Here, one-third of the

children under the age of five suffer from stunted growth. [9]

So, the strategies for developing human capital in this phase should revolve around reducing

stunted growth and providing high-quality education.

1. Increase in Dairy Intake: A study found that milk consumption helps reducing stunting by

as much as 10.5 points among the children in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has lower levels of per

capita milk consumption. [10] Compared to India, it’s less than half. Grameen Danone’s Social

Enterprise Business is an effective example here. Objectives are given below:

• Encouraging livestock production will be helpful for child growth due to the increase

in dairy production. In addition, cultivation of fruits and vegetables, even on a small

scale, can increase vitamin A and C intake.

• The promotion of dairy farming is likely to have beneficial effects on child health. Such

interventions have been successful in increasing children’s physical growth in

developed countries so that less emphasis needs to be placed on short-term

evaluations in developing countries.

2. Multisectoral Coordination of Nutrition Intervention: Rather than a siloed approach,

multisectoral coordination while taking initiatives, in nutrition interventions, is effective.

Experience in other countries suggests that improving public health and nutrition has been

more successful where the highest level of government bodies was involved characterized by

high levels of multisectoral coordination.

• The Nexus Nutrition Plan is the way to go. In Yemen, development partners and the

government have been engaged in developing a long-term integrated multisectoral

action plan for combating undernutrition from 2015 to 2019, with the engagement of

all sectors.

• Agriculture, food security and social protection need to converge and work together

in proximity.

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3. Nutrition-Specific and Nutrition Sensitive Interventions: Nutrition specific
interventions like calcium supplementation during pregnancy, balanced energy-protein

supplementation, micronutrient supplementation to young children etc. should be focused on.

Scaling these up can reduce the mortality rate and stunting. [11]

Combining nutrition sensitive interventions with nutrition specific intervention can bring

effective results. United Nations Scale Up Nutrition or SUN movement is the most prominent

here. Bangladesh joined the SUN countries in 2012 to fight malnutrition and maternal health

within the first 1000 days of pregnancy and childbirth.

The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Strategy and Roadmap (2016-2020) presents a

practical vision of how we can all work together, toward our vision of a world without

malnutrition by 2030.

Objectives:

• Sustained engagement of development agencies in support for SUN outcomes.

• Increasing investment from the government and mobilizing resources from external

sources for nutrition has worked for most countries. The main challenge here is the

coordination among stakeholders and donors for mapping of interventions,

implementation coverage, and outcomes.

• Directives should be circulated to the local bodies. From Nepal’s experience, legal

provisions in the acts and regulations make local bodies more responsible for

implementing nutrition and social protection programs at the local level.

• Family planning programs that enable birth spacing reduce demands on the low

maternal nutrient stores in developing countries.

• It would be helpful to design policies to improve the iron content of staple foods such

as rice and beans while increasing the intakes of vegetables such as orange flesh sweet

potato that contain higher quantities of β-carotene.

4. Reducing Low Birthweight: A life cycle approach is effective in reducing LBW which
requires improving the health of adolescent girls, encouraging optimum family food and rest

coupled with proper antenatal care.

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Objectives:

• Collaboration with the government to create an awareness building campaign in the

rural areas of the country. There are clinics, e.g. Surjer Hashi Clinic, where there are

authorized doctors who will spread the message among the people of the village to

consult a doctor before they conceive a baby. They will also have volunteers who will

go from door to door to newly married couples and other couples to spread the

message.

• Creating an awareness building advertisement/video and broadcast it on BTV and

other channels which can be viewed to mostly the rural population.

5. Water, Hygiene, and Sanitation: SDG goal 6 focuses on this issue. Focus should be put on

problems like clogged drainage systems in urban areas, handwashing at critical times, proper

disposal of waste, safe preparation of complementary food etc. Developing collaboration with

programs such as Jhilmili, Proshikkha, Brac Development Programs, UNICEF.

7.2 A Focus on the Right Kind of Education

Education Vs Unemployment Paradox

While taking a look at the actual situation regarding education and unemployment, one finds

a rather paradoxical relationship. Higher levels of education are associated with lower

levels of unemployment in developed countries, but not so in developing countries. [12]

The real question lies within the reasons behind such a phenomenon. Once the reasons are

identified, the paradox might not seem as surprising as it was at its face value.

Nature of labor market: The segmented nature of the labor market and the demand for

educated labor being limited to mainly modern sectors of the economy bottlenecks the

situation. For that reason, expansion of education especially at tertiary and secondary levels

may not correspond directly with the market demand. [12]

Sectoral Demand: Bangladesh in terms of employment and labor market is dominated by the

agricultural sector. The BBC data shows that most of the employment in the country comes

from the agricultural sector.

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 The contribution to employment by the

agricultural sector remains the highest. And

most of the farmers are illiterate. Some

having passed the primary levels of

education. So, this is one of the biggest

reasons behind the employment paradox.

One-third of the employed lack formal

education. More than 15.5 million employed

workers have finished the primary level of

Figure 11 Employment Distribution by Sectors education while more than 18 million
of Bangladesh 2016-17 (BBS SURVEY)
completed the secondary level. [13]

More graduates are joining the jobless ques. Unemployment among graduates is rising and

rose significantly in the fiscal year of 2016-17. For a country with a significant proportion of

young demographic, this is very worrying. [14]

The youth labor force in our country now stands at 20 million. The labor force surveys of the

years mentioned below show more compelling evidence to back it up. [14]

If most of the people beyond the higher secondary levels of education remain unemployed,

there must be something that we’re doing wrong and we have to fix it. This is what brings us

to channeling our focus into the right kind of skill-based education. The strategies are

mentioned below:

1. Sectoral Renovation: Most of the times, it is seen that those with higher levels of education

do not look for jobs in outside sectors like agriculture, construction, transport etc. and instead

they keep waiting till they find the jobs that match their demand. Hence temporary

unemployment rises among them even more.

Objectives:

• By introducing technology, the yield of agriculture sector can be increased, this will

ensure two things together, it will attract the technologically proficient people and

make the sector lucrative enough towards being able to compete with lucrative jobs.

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 • Investing in the smarter value chain is another way to change this. These sectors should

focus more on the value that they are adding to the lives of people rather than being

a tool. This will give them more stories to tell which will, in turn, give them more

audience and in the long run increase investment and people interested in working in

these sectors. This also calls for a Communication reform.

2. Women empowerment and education in rural areas: It is seen that for women living in

urban areas, even a bit of education can inflict a notable difference in their earnings whereas

for rural women the difference becomes significant only after crossing the level of SSC.

Empowering and educating rural women contributes to human capital development in

significant ways. It also helps with the health of newborn children and their wellbeing.

3. Adapting the level of education with the changes in economic growth: The level of

education that is required changes with the economic growth of a country. Where at the earlier

stage of development, basic education may be sufficient for many jobs that open up. As an

economy soars high, the requirements of education and skills change. Bangladesh is now a

Figure 12 Unemployment Rate among Adult Citizens

developing country. For us, primary education should now be considered a must while the

focus should be put more on the secondary and tertiary levels of education. On the side of

skills, requirements have now evolved from basic cognitive skills to ones with the ability to

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create and think. Investment in skill and education development has to be in line with the rate

and pattern of economic growth. [12]

4. Curriculum Reformation with a Long-term Perspective: Many employers in our country

consider the quality of education and training offered by formal institutions as inadequate and

not in line with their needs. Unsurprisingly, many with vocational training from formal

institutions stay unemployed. The poor performance of graduates is mainly due to an absence

of connection and linkage between the labor market and the system.

The real question here is how the education system can best address the needs of a developing

economy. And propel it to the heights of industrialization 4.0. Kenya like most African countries

has a significantly young population that forms a critical portion of the human workforce.

Agenda 2063 of the African Union includes education aspirations to catalyze an education and

skills revolution and actively promote science, technology, research, and innovation. [15] [16]

Students who have passed SSC/equivalent exams of all groups should get an opportunity to

enroll in HSC level Technical or Vocational courses. At least a few technical subjects should be

introduced in HSC level courses so students can avail the necessary skills. At this moment there

is only 1 technical subject compulsory for the students.

Objectives:

• Introducing vocational and technical education early in junior secondary school to

encourage attaining dual qualification (i.e. academic and industry) and education as a

continuum from Early Childhood Development (ECD) to tertiary level.

• Collaborative partnerships between government and other key players, such as

parents, civil society, and the private sector.

• Outdated mode of teaching and courses should be reformed. Students should be

exposed to experience in workplaces as part of the curriculum.

7.3 Training Development Activities

Certification of Skills: In China, there are specified names of Certificates for Skill development

which are Junior Skill Certificate, and Senior Skill Certificate. And based on that, candidates are

employed as an entry or mid-level mechanic/technician. The ministry may impose the

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adoption of these types of skill development courses starting from higher secondary level. Skill

certificates of various sectors can be identified and compared with the degrees of general

education certificates, to match the skill certificate holders with the appropriate social

recognition as well as the skill identification among the individual to become heightened.

Apprenticeship or dual training systems followed in, Germany, Austria, Denmark and

Switzerland are classic examples of successful public-private partnerships in vocational

education and training that Bangladesh can also adopt.

Ours is a country where brain drain is a very common phenomenon. In these days, reverse

brain drain is also starting to rile up. That’s where the silver lining lies. If the graduates are

encouraged and trained from very early on and infused with the entrepreneurial spirit, a lot

can happen. Successful entrepreneurial venture not only creates employment but also

contributes to the economic development. Entrepreneurship development programs play a

major role here and could be considered as a major strategy in developing human capital.

8. Branding Human Capital

In this modern arena of complexity and uncertainty, nations encounter more choices now with

no time to take a decision. So, a strong brand's capacity to simplify decision making, set

expectations and lessen risk is invaluable. The Bangladeshi construction workers have

experience working on diverse projects across the world particularly the Middle Eastern and

the North African countries. Therefore, to brand the Bangladesh’s construction workers we

need to create a fundamental positioning idea based on our market needs and strength.

Proposed Campaign: Since mothers (and fathers) are the decision makers for children, target

parents and educate them on stunting. Investing in their children now will pay off later.

Some possible positioning ideas includes “We don't build beams; we build dreams",

“Construction skill for tomorrow," and so on. Establishing the idea or key positioning message

is important to commence a brand awareness campaign. Undertaking a big event like

"Construction skill for Tomorrow-week” in order to uncover the present status and position of

construction workers of Bangladesh can be initiated. Besides, other branding strategies like

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global roadshows, a trade magazine, info-campaign, sector-specific conferences etc. are

recommended. The expected outcome of these strategies has also been outlined.

9. Conclusion
The shape of Human Capital is going to take a drastic turn with the emergence of the fourth

industrial revolution. Bangladesh has shown both signs of progress in some sectors and a level

of disarray in others. With the right strategy in line to reform education sector, ensuring skill

development from formative years, improving training development activities and branding

the specific skillset of labors, this challenge can be well utilized to push ahead in line of the

developing nations.

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Bibliography

[1] Mole, "Ministry of Labour and Employment," Ministry of Labour and Employment,
[Online]. Available: https://mole.gov.bd/.

[2] BSS, "Daily Star," Daily Star, 25 December 2017. [Online]. Available:
https://www.thedailystar.net/city/11-lakh-bangladeshis-get-overseas-jobs-2017-
1509931.

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