A two-day National Conference on skill development was held on 20 - 21 April 2010. The Honorable Minister of Industries Mr. Dilip Barua was the Chief Guest on 21^st of April and Mr. Md. Nurul Haque, Secretary in charge, Ministry of Labour and Employment was present as the Chief Guest on 20^th of April.

Other special guest on attendance was Head of Cooperation and acting Head of Delegation to European Commission, National Project Director and Director General of Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Additional Secretary (Dev), Ministry of Education and Director in charge ILO.

The conference was attended by senior government officials, representatives of the private sector, NGOs and workers organizations and donor agencies.

The workshop was organized with the support of the GOB-EC-ILO Technical and Vocational Education and Training Reform Project.. During its first phase, the, TVET Reform project has accomplished significant outcomes in all its five components. Important among these are formulation of the Draft National TVET Skills Policy, development of the National Technical and Vocational Education Qualification Framework development of teachers training qualifications, and programs for underprivileged groups. .

One of the notable aspects of the project is to improve productivity through skills development in key industry sectors. As a part of this, Industry Skills Councils have been established in four sub-sectors namely agro-food processing, transport, leather & leather goods, and information technology. Studies commissioned under the project have identified the strategic planning on skills need for the future. During the conference the key findings of the studies were discussed by the participants and proposals will be made for future actions by the policy makers

As an outcome of the sector strategic planning workshops, two “Centers of Excellence” were officially launched by the Honorable Minister for Industries during the National Conference.

In Bangladesh, skills are increasingly being recognized by government, industry and donors as crucial for poverty reduction, employment generation and productivity improvement of the various economic sectors. The holding of the conference will thus help bring out these interrelated issues and suggest ways and means to contribute to the country’s human resource development.