National University held a discussion on ‘strategic partnership to strengthen learning to earning’ at the conference room of the ICT building of the NU in Gazipur on Wednesday.
The NU held the discussion regarding the joint initiative of the university with the Generation Unlimited programme of the UNICEF, said a press release.
The National University is going to be associated with the UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited programme, which will create employment and entrepreneurship for 17 million youth of the country, including students of colleges affiliated to the NU.
This programme is working to develop 1.8 billion disadvantaged youth around the world as skilled citizens.
Presided over by NU vice-chancellor Professor ASM Amanullah, Urmila Sarkar, principal adviser of the Generation Unlimited, YPA secretariat, attended the discussion as chief guest.
The National University is the largest in the country and second largest institution in the world, said Professor Amanullah, mentioning that the NU controlled the 70 per cent of the country’s higher education.
‘Most of them are from marginalised families. Therefore, there is an opportunity to support them in various ways,’ he said.
Stating that the current administration of the university has taken various initiatives to make the students of the university-affiliated colleges capable of surviving in the global employment market and becoming entrepreneurs, Professor Amanullah said that in addition to reforming the old curriculum, ICT and English education had been made mandatory in the undergraduate level.
‘In addition, various issues, including curriculum are being worked on jointly with various related institutions and renowned universities in the country and abroad,’ he said.
In the meantime, the National University has started working with the government’s A2I programme and UNICEF, he said, adding that there were many opportunities for UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited programme to work with all these initiatives of the National University.
Expressing interest in working with the National University, Urmila Sarkar said, ‘There is an opportunity for the United Nations and UNICEF, especially from YPA, to cooperate in creating job opportunities for the youth of Bangladesh. In this regard, the National University can play a leading role.’
NU pro–VCs Professor Md Lutfar Rahman and Professor Md Nurul Islam, UNICEF programme specialists Mamie Kiyo and Fahmida Shabnam, education manager Iqbal Hossain and education officer Mostafa Kamal, and Md Afzal Hossain Sarwar, policy analyst and cluster head of the government’s A2I project, spoke at the event.
