Skills training centres fleece young people

Most manpower skills development training centres are virtually sucking money from the innocent youths in the name of imparting training, victims alleged.

The training centres, mainly located at Savar, Gazipur, Munshiganj and Narayanganj, are supposed to build skilled manpower for export by providing them practical trainings on about 25 different skills.

They are metal work, steel fixture, steel reinforcement, tiles fitting and plastering, brick laying, pipe fitting, structural steel-fitting works, household electric works, A/C Duet fabrication works and other trainings.

At the time of admission in any of these centres, a trainee has to pay Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 as fee with additional Tk 3,000 as meal and accommodation cost every month.

The trainees are generally assured of skills development within three months. They then qualify to sit for the final test of 500 marks (100 MCQ and 400 practical).

If they pass, they are provided with certificates and sent with jobs to Singapore, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Korea, Japan, Australia, EU countries, Canada and the USA, on additional payment of Tk 3 to Tk 4 lakh for 18 years.

But reality is quite different. A trainee is not allowed to appear at the test before six to nine months, it is alleged. Most of the trainees are shown failed in the examinations. The unsuccessful examinees are given another chance on payment of additional Tk 20,000 each.

About 80 to 90 per cent trainees are also shown failed for the second time. Then they are released without any compensation, while, those who are shown as having passed have to pay over Tk 10 lakh for going aboard.

If any trainee does not want to go through the training centre from where he has passed and obtained certificate, he must pay Tk 4 lakh to get back his passport, submitted before the test.

The accommodation and meal in the training centres are described by some victims to be substandard. Besides, they are also treated cruelly. On condition of anonymity, some 10 trainees of Gazipur Technical Training Centre, a sister concern of Delco, told this correspondent that they first paid Tk 50,000 each.

They were given chance to appear at the final test after nine months. They all were shown failed in the first test. Later, they appeared at the examination for the second time by paying extra Tk 20,000 each.

But that time, 18 out of 20 were expelled showing causes of violation of rules and regulations. We incurred loss of Tk one lakh each. It is regularly occurring in the training centre, they said.

Al Amin, who passed BBA from a private university at Uttara in the city and a victim of the training centre, said that he spent Tk 90,000 between enrolment and second time test but in vain.

“Now, my parents think I am good for nothing, as I could neither manage a good job after passing BBA nor passed in the training centre examination,” he lamented.

When contacted, Shakhawat, an ‘examiner’ of the training centre, disagreed with Al Amin’s comments.
Similar allegations are also raised against the YMCA Training Centre, Nova Singapore Skill Training Centre, Reaz Overseas Technical Training Centre, South Port Overseas Ltd, which has 5,200 trainees, BFEW, World Tech, Progressive, BTCL units at Gazipur and Savar.

Bangladesh earns nearly US$14 billion per year as remittance sent by the expatriate Bangladeshis.

observerbd

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