The Department of Technical Education, through the Skills 21 project, will start a year-round campaign to increase the popularity of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The campaign strategy has been developed with the assistance of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the implementor of the Skills 21 project funded by the European Union. An orientation workshop was held in Dhaka on implementing this campaign strategy on Saturday, 18 September, 2021. Principals, Chief Instructors and officials of various technical education and training institutes, including polytechnic institutes, technical schools and colleges of the country and officials of the Technical and Madrasah Education Division (TMED) and the Dept. of Technical Education (DTE), took part in the workshop. Read:ILO: Slow jobs recovery, increased inequality risk long-term COVID-19 scarring The workshop was inaugurated by the Secretary of the Technical and Madrasah Education Division, Md. Aminul Islam Khan. “Creating young people’s interest in technical education is an important task at the moment,” he said. “Research is underway in developed countries as well as in developing countries to expand technical education. The Government of Bangladesh has also made it a priority in the continuity of development. We want mainstream students to be attracted to technical education and help build a skilled Bangladesh,” he added. Tuomo Poutiainen, Country Director of the International Labour Organization, said, “The awareness-raising could only be effective when it reflects the stakeholders’ right messages, language, and communication channels. The campaign aims to use specific media to convey particular messages to the audiences, such as skills training, job opportunities, and decent employment.” Maurizio Cian, Head of Cooperation of the European Union, said at the workshop that the European Union has been working since 2007 to reform Bangladesh’s technical education system. Funding has been provided to develop the National Skills Development Policy-2011, NTVQF, quality assurance system etc. The EU envoy called for an effective awareness campaign to give young people a clear idea of technical education’s scope, effectiveness, context, and job opportunities. Other speakers at the workshop said Bangladesh, as a country, is currently feeling the urge to ensure maximum utilization of demographic dividends. At least two million young people enter the labour market every year. The speakers emphasized raising the standard of technical education and training institutions to turn them into skilled people. Read: Bangladesh elected ILO Covid-19 Technical Committee chair It was informed at the workshop that the pilot program is starting in the first week of October at Sylhet Technical School and College as part of a detailed work plan across the country. This is followed by campaigns at Bangladesh Sweden Polytechnic Institute, Kaptai, Rangamati and Gaibandha Technical Training Center. Field-level information and recommendations will be integrated to finalize the strategy for this campaign. Based on the experience gained after organizing the first part of the program in three organizations in Sylhet, Rangamati and Gaibandha, the next part of the program will be organized in four more partner TVET institutes of the ‘Skills-21’ project. Another workshop will be organized later based on all the results at the field level. There, those concerned will work to make the strategy more perfect. This strategy will then be implemented as an awareness program in technical and vocational education and training institutions all over the country.