Bridging a Tech Skills Gap in Bangladesh

Challenge:

The burgeoning IT-Enabled Services (ITES) sector in Bangladesh faced a critical bottleneck: a significant gap between college graduate skills and industry demands. This disparity hindered sector growth and limited employment opportunities. Existing curricula often lacked practical, industry-relevant skills for immediate contribution, necessitating targeted interventions to prepare graduates for the workforce.

Teacher-Student Centre - University of Dhaka 2015

Solutions Implemented:

As a Senior Strategy Consultant, I played a pivotal subcontractor role in a rapid assessment and strategic planning initiative to address this skills gap. My key contributions included:

• Comprehensive Stakeholder Analysis: Designed and deployed surveys targeting students, faculty, industry leaders, experts, and associations to gather insights on desired and current skill levels.

• Data-Driven Gap Identification: Led the execution of surveys and interviews, ensuring clarity. Analyzed data, presenting findings in visual charts to highlight discrepancies in fundamental and technical skills.

• Strategic Recommendations: Based on analysis, formulated targeted curriculum recommendations prioritizing key fundamental skills (English communication, business etiquette, basic computer literacy) and essential technical skills (basic web development, software QA, graphic design) for high training ROI within project constraints.

Results Achieved:

This strategic assessment provided a foundational understanding of the ITES skills landscape in Bangladesh, directly informing subsequent project phases. Results included:

• Evidence-Based Curriculum Planning: The data-driven gap analysis directly informed the prioritization of key fundamental and technical skill areas for curriculum development, ensuring alignment with industry demands.

• Stakeholder Alignment: The inclusive approach to data collection fostered buy-in from diverse stakeholder groups, including academic institutions and industry partners, demonstrating effective stakeholder management.

• Roadmapping of Interventions: Identifying specific skill gaps provided a clear strategic direction for the development of targeted training programs aimed at equipping graduates with the competencies required for successful entry into the ITES sector=.

• Analytical Skills and Complex Problem Solving: Detailed data analysis informed fundamental skill standards relevant to Bangladesh, laying groundwork for standardized ITES skills development in undergraduate programs for a change-resistant academic culture.

This initiative provided critical insights and a strategic framework that enabled the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and its partners to move forward with the development of targeted training programs designed to effectively bridge the identified skills gap and foster growth within the national ITES industry.

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