British ministers, House of Lords members, and cross-party members of the UK Parliament lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for championing women's empowerment and gender equality at an event organised by the Bangladesh High Commission in London Tuesday. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam was the chief guest at the "Bangladesh-UK@50: Empowering women and girls towards agenda 2030," organised to celebrate International Women's Day 2023. UK Minister for London and Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Paul Scully MP, UK Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Girls' Education Helen Grant MP, Shadow Minister for Asia and the Pacific Catherine West MP, and Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Rushanara Ali MP spoke at the event. Vice chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Afzal Khan MP, Tahir Ali MP, Lord Dholakia, Lord Rami Ranger, Deputy Leader of Labour Lords and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development Lord Collins, Deputy Leader of Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper MP, Member of Justice and Home Affairs Committee Baroness Prashar, Baroness Verma, Baroness Uddin and eminent organiser of Bangladesh's freedom movement in the UK Sultan Mahmud Sharif also joined the discussion. The event, co-hosted by Lord Popat, brought together women ambassadors and high commissioners from different countries, representatives of leading think tanks and civil society organisations, academics and eminent members of the British-Bangladeshi diaspora. Highlighting Hasina's contributions to women empowerment that earned her the "Agent of Change" award and "Planet 50-50 Champion' honour, Shahriar said, "Bangabandhu's visionary daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina put women empowerment at the core of national development and achieved for Bangladesh the highest credentials in gender parity, not only in South Asia but also globally."  

The government is going to provide soft skills training to 500,000 jobseekers and employees within the next five years, aiming to improve their employability skills. “The demand for soft skilled and trained people will substantially be increased over the next decades as huge jobs will be transformed by technology,” State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said on Saturday. He said the government in partnership with a reputed global organization will provide the quality soft skills training to students, jobseekers, employees, self-employed individuals and freelancers to enhance their personal ability to get and keep a job. Also read: ICT division to digitize 73 libraries, says Palak Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under ICT Division in partnership with Wadhani Operating Foundation (WoF), a US-based nonprofit public benefit corporation, will provide the training online under BCC’s training platform `www.bdskills.gov.bd’. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between BCC and WoF last week (1 August 2021) to complete the soft skills training programme by 2026.  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday urged the women of the country to buildup themselves in order to be capable of being empowered.