“One of the main objectives of higher education is to contribute to the national economy by producing skilled and qualified human resources who are employable and can gainfully be hired by the corporate and development sectors. ICT ministry is launching a project to train 20,00 youths within 2025, and Government as a whole has just launched a concerted plan for skilling one million youths to lead be at the forefront to make Bangladesh a developed nation by 2041,” noted ICT Minister of State, Zunaid Ahmed Palak at the inauguration of Job Utsob in Daffodil International University (DIU), at Ashulia, Savar. Minister Palak outlined how the School of Future project with schools of the nation is bringing in basic fourth-industrial revolution technologies at the school level. He called upon the university to develop an innovative project to utilize these schools of the future to train the teenagers in schools better in futuristic skills.

With this goal in mind, UNDP and DIU are jointly organizing the biggest job festival of 2022 in Bangladesh, Futurenation-DIU Job Festival 2022, from 01 to 03 December 2022 at the campus, close to the capital Dhaka. Employers from 200 organizations are present with around 3000 job offers at the Job Festival. At least 4300 job aspirants from various departments and recent alumni of the university have registered to participate in this three-day job festival. The job festival will also feature 20,400 students’ self-assessment training and employability skills testing, apart from networking opportunities with alumni and corporate organizations.

Professor Dr. M. Lutfar Rahman, Vice-Chancellor, Ms. Van Nguyen, Resident Representative, a.i. UNDP Bangladesh, Professor Dr. S. M. Mahbub Ul Haque Majumdar, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Sardar M. Asaduzzaman, Assistant Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh, Mr. Hans Martin Hoeg Henriksen, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Grameenphone Limited, and Mohammad Nuruzzaman, Group CEO, Daffodil Family have also addressed the inaugural session. Mr. Hans from Grameenphone had called for reaching out to rural Bangladeshi youth for higher skilling, and UNDP’s Van Nguyen expressed commitment to carry forward this employability mission to the entire nation. She also mentioned that supporting youth to realize their full potential is always at the core of UNDP’s work in Bangladesh. The Futurenation-DIU Job Festival is one of the key initiatives that will enable youth to engage and take charge of their future. We believe the empowered and transformed youth will contribute their part to the achievement of the SDGs by 2030 and the ambitious goals of Vision 2041.

Dr. Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Professor Dr. M. Lutfar Rahman, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dr. S. M. Mahbub Ul Haque Majumdar, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Prasenjit Chakma, Assistant Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh, Mohammad Nuruzzaman, Group CEO, Daffodil Family, Mr. Hossain Sadat, Head of Public Regulatory

Affairs, Grameenphone Ltd. Professor Dr. Mostafa Kamal, Convener of FutureNation DIU Job Festival 2022 and K M Hasan Ripon, Executive Director, BSDI have also addressed the closing session.

Among the 200 employers, Grameenphone, Banglalink, BRAC Bank, bKash, Pran Group, Le Meridian, ICDDRB, Metrocem, BASIS, US Bangla group, Creative IT, Roxi Paint, DataSoft, Akij Food and Beverage, 10 Minute School and many more are present, both for the interviews and for showcasing their products and services through a mega exhibition at the campus.