The two-day long BPO Bangladesh Conference is going to be concluded this evening (on Sunday). Most of the 9 seminars in the conference focused on the sustainable path of smart careers. Career-to-Entrepreneurship Strategy.
The last seminar of the first day brought up the issue of Academia-Industry interaction in establishing global linkages of BPO organizations in Bangladesh to build the future leadership of the BPO sector. The point which came out was that, instead of looking for shortcuts, seriousness and hunger for career success, and the positive mindset of a candidate bring success. And in the job market, the communication skills, critical thinking and creativity of the employee are most important.
IBA Professor Ridwanul Haque and the Dean of IUB School of Engineering Yusuf Mahbubul Islam presented the keynote at the Industry-Academia Seminar. The seminar was moderated by a science writer Munir Hasan.
In the seminar Prof. Ridwanul Haque highlighted the crisis of accurate data based on how today’s generation is losing attention every 9 seconds. And the issue of suffering from inferiority among the students even after the graduation came up in the voice of Yusuf Mahbubul Islam.
The panelists in this session were Imtiaz Elahi, Managing Director of Graphic People Limited, Liakat Hossain, Convenor of Amrai Digital ‘Amrai Digital Bangladesh’ and Syed Tanveer Hussain, Chief Human Resource Officer of Grameenphone. UGC member Sajjad Hossain was the chief guest at the seminar.
Earlier, Aiman Sadiq, the founder of Ten Minute School, gave tips for success at the career conference. Deputy Minister of Education Mahibul Hasan Naufel shared the story of his life as a call center worker at the beginning of his career being connecting online with Don Samdani.
He said, I got a one-day job as a British Telecom call center during my first year of university in London. After three weeks of training, I used to do core calling and sell calls and internet packages to customers. While in bar school I worked selling insurance policies at Union Kingdom Benefits.
I did not have any skill training for call center or business processing work, those soft skills have been useful in my later life too, added the deputy minister. He said that by sitting in the call center and interacting with different ethnic groups, I have learned the variety of languages which has increased my communication skills. Because language and culture pave the way to sell services in business.
Addressing the young people, Naufel said that BPO will not only benefit our students in terms of income. Through this it will be easy to acquire soft skills through various types of training which will be useful in later career. There is no substitute for communication and presentation skills. These cannot be learned from any university.
The BACCO General Secretary Tauhid Hossain, Youmen in Digital Founder Asia Nila, Eso CEO Zaid Ahmed and Iqbal Bahar Zahid, Founder of Nijer Bolar Moto Ekti Golpo Foundation, among others at the seminar.
The BACCO director Abu Daud Khan delivered his welcome speech at the seminar held on the potential and challenges of Bangladesh in the global market of BPO sector. Anon Subramanian, Head of Business Process Management Institute, WNS International presented the keynote in the Zoom call.
In the keynote discussion moderated by Maria & Co. founder Maria Howladar, expert opinions were presented in the panel discussion on how to advance Bangladesh’s BPO sector in accounting and management like India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Malawi. ICMAB President Md. Abdur Rahman Khan was present as the chief guest.
In the third session, keynote speaker Dinesh Geeti, CEO of Global BPO Alliance shed light on connecting the country’s BPO sector to the global level.
Moderated by BACCO Director Abu Daud Khan, Age Project Director Nahid Sultana Mallick, Sri Lankan Embassy First Secretary Shrimali Jai Ratne, Techno Haven CEO Habibullah Niamul Karim, Adcom Limited Managing Director Nazim Farhan Chowdhury, BASIS Senior President Samira Juberi Himika, Astha IT CEO Hasnain Rizvi Rahman, and Sky Tech Founder Musnad E Ahmed participated in the discussion.
Charles Whitley, head of the team representing Bangladesh in the European Union and ambassador was present as the chief guest of the seminar. In his speech, he stressed the importance of data protection by commenting that the government’s incentives in the BPO sector would be helpful in achieving the Smart Bangladesh target by 2041.
He said, you should protect your data according to GDPR standards. It will protect personal information as well as open up business scope. As far as I know Bangladesh is in the final stage of the data protection law of the state.
Pointing out that there is no substitute for skills in the future, Charles Whitley said, we need 8 million ICT skilled workers by 2030. Our need for specialist staff is greatest in cloud, data engineering and cyber security. I think, Bangladesh will take this opportunity well. Therefore, it is necessary to form skilled workers in this field through policy support. Bangladesh is in an advantageous position in terms of cost and education. I believe, within the next 3-4 years, the demand for Bangladeshi engineers will increase in Europe.