Promoting self-employment in Bangladesh

Goal

To buildup unemployed educated poor youth as self-reliant by income and employment oriented computer education focusing on outsourcing together with assurance of poverty alleviation and contribution to mainstream development.

Objectives

• To convert 120 young men and women into skilled human resources in outsourcing from the unemployed community of educated youth.
• To expose 120 skilled freelancers comprising of both men and women to international labor market through outsourcing.
• To help earn foreign currency through outsourcing having provided the youth with quality IT training.
• To buildup community youth as self-reliant through employment and job placement.
• To reduce abuses, violence, discrimination, deprivation, dowry system and early marriage, forced marriage, physical and sexual exploitation against women by their contribution to family income.
• To ensure women’s participation in social and family decision making through their economic and social empowerment.
• To reduce theft, rigging, addiction, hooliganism and other social violence as well as corruption by making the youth self-reliant.
• To consolidate national economy together with rural socio-economic structure through helping the youth earn foreign currency.
• To eliminate child labor and protect fundamental rights of the children through increasing family income.
• To widen the scope of earning for the students through outsourcing to unburden socio economic pressure on poor guardians.

Media Coverage

https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/spirit-youth...

Project Rationale in Bangladesh Perspective

UNDP human development report Asia and Pacific, published on the eve of international workers’ day, 2016 very rightly and quite reasonably draws an inference that Bangladesh is enjoying its demographic bonus, pointing to a future likelihood of hazards and predicaments of demographic dividend unless Bangladesh can strategize it’s development programs to take up the challenge of its changed demographic features, referring to the present high population density and fortunate age structure as well as likely population age structure of Bangladesh after 15 to 30 years. According to that report which marginally differs from BBS statistics perhaps because of procedural differences: 49% of our population is under the age of 24; 105.6 million operational man power constitutes 66% of our total population; within 15 years, operational manpower statistics will rise to 70% of the total population. With reference to high percentage of older generation, the report expresses concern in apprehension of likely pitfalls of demographic dividend Bangladesh is going to fall victim to after 30 years from now. With suggestions of preemptive measures, the report also expresses much deeper concern that despite enjoining demographic bonus, Bangladesh has yet not exploited this bonus opportunity rightly, with reference to its existing bizarre reality that not only 74% of its operational youth manpower is still unused and unexplored but also a major ratio of its educated youth is still unemployed. Government, entrepreneurs and civil society also, more or less, hold the same opinions. With a view to reversing the existing reality that the country is creating 0.2 million jobs a year whereas it should have created 0.6 million jobs a year to keep pace with demographic dynamics, Prime Minister’s Chief ICT Adviser, Sajib Wazed Joy and Incumbent state minister for ICT, Junayed Ahmed Palak very rightly point to as to how ICT could be a leading factor and domineering catalyst instrumental to enhancing development to realize our dream of being a high middle income country by 40s. In past 30 years, Bangladesh witnessed how labor intensive sectors like garments industry and export of man power played a key role in strengthening national economy which contributed 31.20 billion dollar and around 15 billion dollar respectively last year. But both the sectors are not uniquely labor intensive, they are capital intensive also.Naturally Bangladesh should explore the feasibility of such sectors that are, at the same time, less capital intensive but more labor intensive together with high economic return. Outsourcing could be a legibly more viable sector least capital intensive with most promising economic return and bearing an outrageous possibility of surpassing even enterprises like apparel sectors and export of manpower. Present global outsourcing market is approximately equivalent to 500 billion US dollar and Bangladesh has a huge prospect and diverse potency of being a vital co-sharer of this ever growing market within 10 to 15 years. If Bangladesh can only be a 5% co-sharer of the existing outsourcing market, it will add almost 25 billion dollar to our economy a year. We can take Mexico-experience to be a real guideline on our way to understanding how Mexico caught up with the possibility of outsourcing and became a key player in global outsourcing market with rapid upgrading of its global standing to fourth in ten years as well as with what appropriate policy, strategy and measures, Bangladesh can exploit its dormant strength to harvest the opportunity of emerging as a key contestant in global outsourcing market. The project we propose here to implement in Lalmonirhat district, we believe, could be regarded as a model of innovation project to be replicated in other districts if it can successfully prove its precision and effectiveness bringing quality and quantity change in local employment scenario through outsourcing, trying its possibility as an economic change maker. As we know, owing to socio cultural and religious prejudice and conservation, woman population which constitutes almost 49% of our total population, can contribute nothing deserving mention to our economy. Outsourcing obviously opens a culturally aligned and gender responsive gateway of integrating vastly unused and unexplored woman population into mainstream development strategy with an assurance of 50% women participation in all outsourcing training programs. Moreover, this project will demonstrate ways of practically engaging trained freelancers in earning mechanism, facilitating their access to global outsourcing market with a provision of 9 month long internship, where they will also be given entrepreneurship tips to come out as new entrepreneurs. So this project is a feasible model trial that is designed to showcase local and national potential of outsourcing to be the leading factor pacing economic development faster than ever. Bangladesh government has under taken tremendous initiatives to carry digital facilities even to the door steps of the most unreached together withthe worst downtrodden and we believe government has both strength and will enough to come out successful. At the same time, we believe, government needs to consider how best ICT sectors can be exploited with its ramping digital facility equilibrium to enhance economic progress. This project is designed and fabricated to try and show dormant potential of outsourcing as leading economic change maker even superseding the stand-alone contribution of garments sector and export of manpower at the ever lowest expenses.

Preface to the proposed project

Perspective IT is the primary manifestation of an ambitious drive budding from a long cherished dream of a great young visionary who visualized a comprehensive picture as to how the nation could explore and harness the dormant potency and vigor of the rural unemployed educated youth paving the way for likely flamboyant prospect for them through capacity building in ICT apace with the flourish of digital facilities across the country which has been going on at full scale for almost a decade. With this dream in heart, he ventured into a challenging feat of establishing an outsourcing based IT farm in the farthest corner of the country, amid the remotest human habitat stretching along the northern frontier with India, with a hope of integrating rural unemployed educated youth into mainstream development activities of the nation. It was an astounding event to the local people who initially mistook it for a funny insanity but soon they came back to cognizance what amazing deed a spontaneous spirit of a youth can accomplish just when he unleashes the strength of his heart. Much more amazing was how he managed to induce his unquenchable ravenous spirit into the heart of those frustrated derailed educated youth and make them turn around to withstand the odds of life. His success story inspired him to shoulder the challenge of going further ahead to igniting the same avid and fervent zeal into the essence of inner heart of other freelancers across the country to embark on similar endeavor to nurture and nourish the dormant potency of the unemployed educated youth of their locality and community through providing training on outsourcing and ensuring job placement. With a view to materializing that dream, he pioneered forming a national level organization, Bibhasito Bekar Kallyan (BIBEK), amassing all the freelancers under one umbrella. The aforesaid organization is working in full swing all over the country to establish local facilities for training on outsourcing together with the assurance of job placement, creating local freelancers’ community to take on the responsibility of undertaking the assigned task. Since the inception of BIBEK, Perspective IT keeps on providing financial and logistical support to BIBEK as well as to all the local freelancers’ community across the country to implement their local outsourcing training programs. But the founder of Perspective IT believes that what he has been doing is utterly inadequate to match the expanse both of possibility and necessity of the youth of the country. Naturally he hopes that Government should come forward to give hand in order to enhance the speed and scale of the work to accelerate development activities at need-felt pace through ICT.

Training Modules:

Module 1: graphic design

Module 2: web design

Module 3: capacity building and creating job placement through outsourcing

Module 1: Graphic Design for First 30 Days

1. Basic conceptions relating to graphic design

2. T-shirt design

2. Logo design

3. Typography design

4. Poster design

5. Business card design

6. Clipping path

7. Photo editing, manipulation and illustration

8. Trouble shooting for Photoshop and illustrator

Module 2: Web Design for Second 30 Days

• Basic conceptions relating to web design
• Creation of PSD template using Adobe Photoshop
• Procedures of conversionfrom PSD to html and CSS
• basic conceptions relating to PhP, Java, MySQL
• Website development through wordpress

Module 3: Capacity Building and Online Job Placement through outsourcing for Last 30 Days

• Create expertise in internet browsing
• Procedure of online market analysis and evaluation.
• Mechanism of outsourcing in fiverr marketplace
• Mechanism of outsourcing in upwork marketplace
• Mechanism of outsourcing in envato marketplace
• Mechanism of online marketing

WORKING PLAN

• To Deploy necessary Man Power
• To select members for training through survey and campaign and get them admitted.
• Distribute training study materials among the selected members admitted.
• To inaugurate the training session as well as launch monitoring and evaluation.
• To create primary income opportunity alongside training.
• To provide certificate after the completion of training and engage the trainees in freelancing.
• To create opportunity for working in outsourcing institutions as apprentice during the training.
• To reduce unemployment creating opportunity for the trainees to have access to international market and engage them in-providing training for the new comers and by this way keep the process on going.

IMPLEMENTATION MEASURES

• To select 30 members and have them admitted primarily through a union level survey, once every three other months.
• To take the training programs up to district level starting from union level.
• To strengthen mind set of the trainees through arranging their visits to reputed outsourcing institutions and discussion sessions with successful skilled freelancers on their experience and suggestions, during training.
• To provide each class with subject related video tutorials.
• To provide training related user guide and manual for the trainees.
• To create opportunity for works after the completion of training.
• To make specialized arrangement for earning foreign currency having recourse to collective community experience.

MANPOWER NEEDED

Project Adviser (non-paid):2

Project Director:1

Field Worker:1

Trainer:6

Accountant come supervisor:1

Security Guard:2

Office Assistant:1

TRAINING MATERIALS NEEDED

• Books
• Video Tutorials
• Computer
• Internet Connection
• Furniture

IMPACT EXPECTED

• Primarily at least 20 trained freelancers will be absorbed in employment which will be increased step by step.
• Reduced poverty and increased self-employment.
• Reduced prevalence of discrimination and violence against women.
• Increased earning of foreign currency together with meeting up the demand of the native markets.
• Developed rural socio economic infrastructure together with reduced unemployment.
• Socio economic progress for the trained freelancers along with an inspirational environment for others to follow.
• Increased ICT literacy rate.
• Increased and enhanced participation of women in national economic emancipation.
• Increased revenue generation and reserved foreign currency.
• Assurance of reduced rate of subsidy in different sectors from the government on account of increased income generation.
• Establishment of institutions in every house where without any assistance of government subsidy, we will lead to a middle income country in silence with peace together with the establishment of justice and socio economic stability according as our father of the nation, Bangabandhu, dreamt.