Questions/Answers

Narsingdi district, Bangladesh is home to a population of 2,224,944 with 60% adults. It is one of the industrial hubs in Bangladesh with many backward-linkage industries. It also has a high education rate, over 75%, yet the employable local population struggles to find a suitable job. It was observed that the qualification of the candidates was not suitable for the offered roles and the existing training courses did not cater to local business demand. This created a void for skilled employees and the job seekers failed to land a decent job. The office of the Deputy Commissioner, Narsingdi identified the gap and decided to work with the local institutions to develop a single forum for the recruitment of unskilled and low-skilled workers to meet the demand of the local businesses. To address this issue, the Deputy Commissioner of the Narsingdi District urged the Chamber of Commerce, Narsingdi (NCC), to agree on a common forum among job seekers, employers and training institutions. The objective of the forum was to reduce the unemployment rate and connect the job seekers with the local industries. Through this platform, the job seekers can learn about in-demand skills, available training to meet the local demand, and apply for work regardless of location, sex, disabilities, and skills. NCC welcomed this idea by opening booths, both offline and online, to collect CVs from local job seekers and received more than 3000 CVs until today. These CVs are used to create an unemployed youth database of locals which is then shared with the local industries for recruitments. This initiative has successfully ensured job placement for over 500 candidates to date. The initiative is currently followed as a roadmap towards the formulation of the "National Intelligence for Skills, Employment, and Entrepreneurship(NISPE)" framework by A2i(ICT Division) and Action-Aid(NGO).

The project aims to create a common platform for district administration and industry owners to promote decent and productive jobs for young people, regardless of gender or physical abilities. This public-sector initiative has helped and guided local industries to develop a common standard for recruitment and to increase the accessibility of decent jobs for unemployed people. Similarly, local technical training institutions were able to understand the demand for local skills and tailor their courses. The initiative thus served as a bridge between the job market and the training institution, eliminating resource wastage for skills development.

Decent work for skilled young people (SDG 8) helps to engage young people to contribute to economic growth. Outside of the unclear and archaic recruiting system, the initiative helped more than 500 young individuals to find suitable and decent jobs. The initiative has also helped young women find decent jobs that are appropriate for their interests and abilities. The District Administration and the Chamber of Commerce, Narsingdi District (NCC), visit the appointed staff periodically and listen to their experiences. Thus, the initiative created a sense of safety and security among the employees (SDG 8.5, 8.6, and 8.8). The initiative is easy to replicate and can be implemented in other industrial-rich districts, paving the way for the development of national youth employment and training strategy (SDG 8.b).

Socio-economic development: The initiative has its prime focus on harmonizing the recruitment process of the local industries calibrating the skill development institutes to be more responsive to local job market demand. It is actively working on operationalizing an integrated strategy towards young employment as the country is entering towards a young demographic dividend. To increase the accessibility, for both employer and employee, the District Administration and NCC have joined together to develop an application based digital platform, where the jobs will be posted by local businesses on a common website to increase accessibility for both job seekers and providers.

There are hardly any government initiatives in the nation that have effectively addressed the prevailing gap in the realization of potential demand in the local job market, informing potential job seekers about local demand and the institutions that can provide the skills needed. The district administration was able to address this issue and piloted the "Job Corner" initiative, which, after consulting NCC, primarily set a common job specification for 13 most requested jobs in the district, helped to hire more than 500 job seekers to get decent jobs and include skill development courses focused on the job market.

The initiative opens the opportunity for educated and trained women to be recruited for suitable jobs under this framework. Since most of the opportunities in mills and factories are labor-intensive and not suitable for women in the local context, it has helped the women applicant and the recruiters to identify appropriate roles and encourage women to apply for those particular vacancies. Through this platform, over 100 women have been recruited to this date in different organizations in Narsingdi.

Target Groups/ Beneficiaries: Young/unemployed population: This initiative has opened the window of opportunities for job-seekers who are relatively uninformed about the job market and skills in demand. Industries/business organizations: This initiative has gained confidence as a safe and secure source of recruitment among local businesses and industries. By collecting CVs from local sources (booths, job fairs, and local sources), NCC and District Administration jointly manage and upgrade the database of potential job seekers. Training Institutions: The initiative helped the training institutions to be more responsive to local job-demand. Besides, the district administration has issued several letters to these institutions and governing ministries to upgrade their courses according to job-demand.

Key Development and Steps: 1. Forming an executive committee at district level, headed by deputy commissioner. The responsibility of the committee includes development of common standard for jobs through meetings with owners of industries and members of the chamber of commerce. 2. Setting places and dates for CV collection in the district. 3. Developing a database based on collected CVs. 4. Based on the preset standard of different jobs, the committee provides a general recommendation for CVs suitable for available jobs. 5. CV databases are shared with local industries as these industries place requisition to the committee. 6. The industries also send a report to District Administration on how many job seekers they have recruited so far to update the CV database. 7. The training institutions are being informed by the committee to change/include/develop special skill development courses as per job demand. 8. The committee involves local and national print and electronic media to inform the local job seekers about the initiative. 9. The committee is also responsible for developing an online platform for CV submission and recruitment using a website and mobile application.

Notable local businesses and industries are reluctant to participate as they follow informal ways of recruitment, promote gender-biased job roles with significant wage gaps. The local training institutions have limited capacity to offer courses that reflect the local job market/skill demand and unable to change/update/include new courses due to lengthy administrative processing. In terms of addressing job placement for the disabled population, very few businesses had facilities suitable for disabled people. Through this platform, the office of the deputy commissioner has raised awareness about equal employment opportunity and are working closely to make the workplaces more friendly irrespective of gender/skills.

Arguably, Job Corner was the first initiative in Bangladesh to link job providers, job seekers, and human resource development institutions under a common framework. As the initiative gained formal media coverage, other districts followed the model to improve the unemployment issue in respective areas working with the local businesses and industries. Moreover, the country is currently experiencing a demographic dividend, where the young population is likely to increase in a couple of the next decades. With the young population entering the job market, an operationalized strategy is a must for youth employment.

The district administration of Cox’s Bazar and Jashore had taken a similar initiative in the last quarter of 2019. These two districts arranged job fairs to collect CVs from the locals and forward it to local businesses to recruit as per their demand of employees and skill set. However, these initiatives were for short time and did not establish any common job standard neither did include training institutes for further course development.

The committee has decided to launch a website and android base applications to increase the accessibility of this initiative from all over the country, as the committee received an overwhelming response from locals. Developing and launching the app is the responsibility of the executive committee. The district administration, Chamber of Commerce, Narsingdi, and other related government organizations, however, have agreed to work as an admin panel for the app and website's digital governance.

The initiative was only adopted twice, to the applicant's knowledge, by any government institution in the country. Cox's Bazar and Jashore District Administration have organized job fairs where locals have been invited to submit job applications and CVs to local non-government organizations. With the help of local NGOs, Cox's Bazar district administration arranged a job fair for locals to recruit young, unemployed, and low-skilled job seekers to work in the largest Rohingyas refugee camp in South Asia. The job fair was organized to ensure that locals in these camps were employed and decent work was offered to them. In Jashore, the district administration promoted a job fair, where locals, who completed training in different government institutions could apply for jobs in 52 private business and organizations for jobs. Both of the initiatives have generated extensive local response, but over time they have not continued. Similarly, there was also a lack of structured involvement by local chambers of commerce or training institutions in these initiatives.

The initiative is highly replicable in industrially rich districts, especially where local business communities have strong organizations such as the local Chamber of Commerce. Several government organizations, such as the District Labor and Employment Office, technical training institutions under the guidance of the district administration, may carry out basic studies to identify local labor market demands and tailor courses to develop the skills required. In addition, the initiative offers the local job market a common job standard that supports youth, unemployed, and job seekers in developing markets for decent jobs and in building coherence between public authorities and non-governmental institutes.

The job application collection booths were set up at job fairs by various business organizations. The collection and selection of applications are carried out free of charge by the local chamber of commerce. The office of the Deputy Commissioner, Narsingdi is responsible for holding meetings with the members of the Executive Committee. The website and application development are being financed by the chamber of commerce. The executive committee of this initiative is currently working on developing a non-profit business model for the initiative to increase the number and coverage of its beneficiaries (Job providers, training providers, and job seekers)

The Job Corner is a demand-driven platform that makes it sustainable. The job corner operates at the center of the 3 segments and facilitates job placement for the unemployed. Since the website and app are hosted by the district administration, there is hardly any additional expense for this service. The income for managing the expenses is generated through a subscription model where the recruiting organizations pay a nominal fee upon successful recruitment. The website will also be linked to the ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment, so that job seekers can know about the overseas recruitment process and qualifications.

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The project was externally evaluated, nominated, and awarded the “National Public Service Award 2019” by the Ministry of Public Administration. The evaluation process was not made public. To understand the efficacy, sustainability of the initiative and decide on a future work plan, the project was Internally evaluated by the order of the executive committee of Job Corner in Narsingdi through a local NGO, PAPRI, working on poverty reduction through employment.

As the evaluation was made by the ministry, the true process and evaluation tools used were not disclosed during the evaluation. However, the document included here in Part IV includes an evaluation report made by the applicant for this award. The tool used: Kobo and Microsoft Excel (For Quantitative Survey) The Indicators used: 1. Number of unskilled and skilled beneficiaries been offered/received a job; 2. Number of male and female beneficiaries offered/received a job; 3. Gender-based wage gap observed among beneficiaries; 4. Wage band of the beneficiaries as per job categories; 5. Drop-out rate of the beneficiaries.

The detailed findings are shown in brief (according to internal evaluation): 01. The initiative has been able to clearly decrease the gender-based wage gap and placement in the local job market among beneficiaries (job seekers). 02. The initiative helped significantly young unskilled job seekers to land jobs in the formal sector. 03. Training institutions still have limited capacity to meet the local job market demand. 04. Strong digital infrastructure will help to increase the accessibility and number of beneficiaries. 05. The executive committee has to develop a framework to absorb the adverse impact of emergencies(pandemic) as most of its beneficiaries are placed in labor-intensive industries and services. 06. As the volume of activity and the number of beneficiaries are rising, the committee must develop a suitable non-profit business model to ensure the sustainability of this initiative. The Ministry of Public Administration recognized the initiative to be well aligned with SDG 8 and the national priority (#21, #22, and #23) of Bangladesh. The ICT division of Bangladesh is currently working on developing "National Intelligence for Skill, Employment and Entrepreneurship (NISE)"- an online-based service management system along with a2i(Prime Minister's Office) and Action Aid (NGO), based on this initiative.

Job Corner is mostly managed by the DC office, Narsingdi. It is supported by the connected government organizations which support the local business associations, training institutes, industries, and their involvement in this initiative. The A2i, supported by the Cabinet Division, ICT Division, and UNDP has recognized and followed the initiative to formulate "National Intelligence for Skills, Employment, and Entrepreneurship (NISE2)"- a strategy to manage and reduce the unemployment problem through online based management nationally. Under this strategy in consideration, A2i is currently working with the office of the deputy commissioner and divisional commissioner through arranging workshops at the district level. The office of the deputy commissioner and local chamber of commerce is also working on increasing the collaboration of government/non-government training institutes, government agencies, and local industries to increase training courses related to job market demand at a large scale. The executive committee of this initiative holds regular meetings under joint cooperation of district administration, NCC, local business organizations, industry owners, government/non-government agencies, training institutions, local representatives, and civil society to discuss, evaluate and present new findings based on the initiative to make it more effective, accessible and sustainable to its beneficiaries.

The initiative was primarily undertaken by the District Office, Narsingdi. In the inception phase, the DC office worked closely with the local industries, civil societies, local representatives, Narsingdi Chamber of Commerce, training institutions, district youth development officers, and local media to align them with the objectives of the initiative. In the next phase, the DC office facilitated the creation of the forum and invited local businesses/industries and training institutes to promote in-demand skills and help in the skills development of the youth for recruitment. The initiative was internally evaluated by a committee formed by the DC office which included local public representatives, concerned government offices (district labor and employment office, district youth office, district women and children welfare office), civil society, district chamber of commerce, training institutions and led by the Deputy Commissioner. As per the guideline of the evaluation committee lead, the indicators were finalized keeping the local context in mind, and tools were developed for data collection. The evaluation was a mixed-method study (Qualitative and Quantitative) with convenience sampling which included respondents from the job seekers, training institutions, local businesses, government offices, district youth development officer, and other stakeholders.

The Job Corner initiative was the first of its kind in Bangladesh to bring job seekers, businesses, and training institutions to work together and improve living standards through decent jobs. It propelled the economic growth of the district and encouraged women and disabled people to apply for jobs that they previously were reluctant to pursue. This initiative helped the local organizations to meet the business needs by leveraging local talents. Currently, 20 organizations are connected to this initiative and more organizations have expressed their interest to join this forum. The DC Office, Narsingdi is currently focusing on the creation of a digital network for job seekers, where workers can engage independently with employees which will be monitored by the District Administration. District administration also hopes to facilitate the development of a database of job seekers and involve different national and multinational companies as recruitment partners.