The ICT Division in partnership with the private sector will create 20,000 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) professionals in the next five years through providing training online to college and university students.

As part of its beginning, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque on Monday inaugurated BPO skill development training programme via digital platform at Mushuddi Razia College of Dhanbari, Tangail.

Some 130 students of the college will get 60 hours of training in English and 80 hours of training in German language that are required for getting BPO work.

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Chaired by Principal of the college Keshab Chandra Das, the function was addressed, among others, by LICT Project Director Tarique M Barkatullah and IT-ITES Policy Adviser Sami Ahmed, Chairman of Golden Harvest Infotech Rajeeb Samdani, CEO of A2Arena Asub Ullah Khan. Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and Golden Harvest Infotech jointly organized the function.

The minister said the ICT has expanded up to village level with the implementation of various initiatives under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Frontier technologies of the fourth Industrial revolution like Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics are being used in different sectors like agriculture.

“There’s no alternative to skill development training, and we’ve to create skilled human resources on frontier technologies,” Dr. Razzaque said.

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He said Bangladesh has now become a role model of development and this trend of development must have to be continued by fully utilizing technology to turn Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041.

The BPO skill development training will fulfill the skill gap in English and German languages required to get work from the global outsourcing market, said Tarique M Barkatullah.

He said the training will enhance the capacity of BPO professionals to compete in the international market.

Sami Ahmed said ICT career camp, roadshow and campus activation are being organized in the country’s colleges and universities to make the students aware to take training and build careers in BPO.

Bangladesh’s BPO sector is gradually expanding over the last 12 years and local organisations, including banking and non-banking and insurances, have come forward to outsource their works, he added.

Ahmed Rajeeb Samdani said Bangladesh has become an attractive destination for investment due to the development of an ICT ecosystem by the government.

Asub Ullah Khan said they are putting emphasis on creating skilled human resources at village level and that is why this training programme has been launched at a Tangail village.

The Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under the ICT Division has made partnership with Golden Harvest Infotech to provide the BPO skill development training in the WELEARN platform under BCC’s training platform `www.bdskills.gov.bd’.

BCC and Golden Harvest Infotech will jointly issue certificates against those who will successfully complete training.