10 ongoing, 6 planned projects aim to boost youth employment: Aminul

The government is implementing 10 projects aimed at increasing employment, encouraging self-employment and developing entrepreneurship among young people across Bangladesh, Youth and Sports minister Aminul Haque said before Jatiya Sangsad on Tuesday.

Speaking during a parliamentary session, Aminul Haque said, "The initiatives are being carried out through the Department of Youth Development to help unemployed young people gain practical skills and create new income opportunities.”

He made the remarks while responding to a written question from Mostafizur Rahman Babul. The sitting began at around 11:00am under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal.

The minister stated, "The projects currently under way cover a wide range of training and development programmes.”

“These include technology support for disadvantaged rural communities, poverty reduction through technology, life skills education for young people, and employment initiatives targeting those not in education, employment or training,” he added.

Other programmes focus on improving opportunities for women and young people in Cox’s Bazar, expanding and modernising youth training facilities, strengthening ICT training in all 64 districts, providing freelancing courses for job seekers, and developing artificial intelligence-based digital skills.

He also told Parliament that the government has identified six additional priority projects that could be introduced quickly to produce visible results by helping unemployed young people become skilled workers and entrepreneurs.

The proposed six initiatives include expanding employment and self-employment training at the upazila level, a second phase of vehicle driving training, a carer training programme for supporting people with physical and mental disabilities, freelancing courses in metropolitan cities, and mobile phone servicing and language training designed to improve employment opportunities both in Bangladesh and overseas.

The combined programmes are intended to strengthen the skills of the country’s young workforce while creating more opportunities for sustainable employment and entrepreneurship.