The British Council and National Skills Development Council Secretariat (NSDC-S) organised a ‘Digital Creative Industry Forum’ at the NSDC Secretariat premises on 16 June 2016. The event was hosted by ABM Korshed Alam, Additional Secretary, CEO of NSDC-S and Louise Cowcher, Director Development Contracts, British Council.
The forum brought together key employers from a range of sectors, including film and TV, radio, advertising and marketing, architecture, animation, publishing and multi-media. They discussed the opportunities and challenges of the digital creative industries.
The importance of the sector is recognised by the Government of Bangladesh, and this initial meeting explored the new role of Industry Skills Councils (ISC) in skills development and specifically the perspective of establishing an Industry Skills Council for the digital creative industries. The role of an ISC will be to do an analysis of the labour market, identify all of the jobs in the sector, and develop the occupational standards for the sector, which then form the basis of qualifications and training curricula.
The group of senior industry professionals agreed that the digital creative industries are a key sector for economic growth and it will provide job opportunities for the talented tech savvy youth of Bangladesh. They also agreed that they faced the common challenge of how to get the right people into the right jobs at the right time with the right skills. One way of addressing this common challenge is to provide young people with access to industry-relevant training opportunities.
So, the first step in developing an industry-responsive skills offer is to bring together employers to get their buy in which was achieved by this forum. The group unanimously endorsed the setting up of the Digital Creative Industry Skills Council and have set an ambitious timeline of 6 to 12 months. The British Council is delighted that the UK will be the Government of Bangladesh’s partner of choice in this. The British Council looks forward to working with NSDC in this exciting field.