On March 30, 2023, the Building Youth Employability Through Skills (BYETS) project held a consultation workshop with RMG sector stakeholders. The workshop aimed to identify demand for different skills in the factory, design the training approach and modality, as well as to identify areas for improvement in the RMG factory regarding Labour Rights and Decent Work (LRDW), Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), and Environmental Responsibility (ER).
Representatives from 17 top Readymade Garments (RMG) factories and buyers such as GAP and Primark attended the workshop. Participants were primarily from the Human Resources division, Compliance, and Industry Engineering departments. Factory-wise opinion was collected through a survey form and mixed group discussion was also facilitated during the workshop to identify the content that should be included and prioritised in workplace-based training (WBT).
Collaboration with private-sector employers
The workshop will help the project to validate the training need assessment findings in RMG factories. Since RMG is one of the sectors targeted by the BYETS project, its goal is to address existing constraints in developing RMG workforce skills. To accomplish this, the project plans to collaborate with private-sector employers to improve existing WBT systems or establish new ones within their enterprises to upskill and reskill existing workers, particularly women. The project aims to increase the income of Bangladesh's youth by creating decent employment and self-employment opportunities in three sectors: Readymade Garments (RMG), Agro-processing (AP), and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) across four divisions precisely Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, and Rajshahi.
The BYETS project is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and implemented by Swisscontact.