Portal to provide job services to unemployed youths

Kolorob Jobs, a digital job portal to create job opportunities for unemployed and vulnerable youths, was launched in the city on Sunday, reports UNB.

The website is a project of Save the Children in Bangladesh.

The aim of the platform is to make job placement easier for unemployed and vulnerable youth jobseekers in Bangladesh, said Mark Taylor Pierce, country director of Save the Children.

He added that employers can recruit qualified semi-skilled and skilled workers for blue collar jobs using the platform.

State minister for posts, telecom and information technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak launched the portal at a city hotel.

Appreciating the initiative, he said, ICT division can also play role using the platform as job provider for the applicants including outsourcing jobs through signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with stakeholders to publish the job opportunities in the platform.

The ICT division is designing a 6 to 12 months long vocational training and Kolorob Jobs can support the initiative through making the youth population know about the trainings countrywide as well as for choosing skilled trainers, he added.

This website is an initiative led by EYE (Education for Youth Empowerment) programme that works for empowering adolescents and youth in Bangladesh by building their skills and capabilities.

It also works with businesses and employers to help youth and adolescents to transition to decent work and become active citizens.

Referring to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data, EYE programme director Shahida Begum said, around 25 percent of the country's youth population in the 15-29 years' age group is remained outside of employment, education or training (NEET), and 60 percent of them are female.

Currently EYE programme reaches 190,000 adolescent and youths in 11 city corporations and 17 districts of Bangladesh including 90 Upazilas every year, she said.

The project is working through partnership with 22 national organisations and 50 corporations along with the government of the country, she added.

Babar Chowdhury, senior manager (ICT) of Save the Children, said, currently there are 151 million of mobile phone users and 88 million use internet service.

Poor and disadvantaged youth with low education can use the platform to search and apply to suitable jobs, prepare CVs, look for different training programmes while employers can use the platform to advertise and recruit skilled workers, he said adding that training providers can also use the platform to enroll trainees.

Among others, Wahidur Rahman Sharif, president of Bangladesh Association of Call Center and Outsourcing (BACCO), Syed Almas Kabir, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and Mohammad Wahidul Islam, director of Planning and Development Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) also spoke in the occasion.