The Daily Star Editorial

17July 2020

The post pandemic era demands innovation from the youth

As the pandemic continues to rage across the country and its economic fallout is
already starkly manifested, young people are facing unprecedented uncertainty.
Will they get jobs with their existing skills? Will they find new employment
after being laid off? Will existing young entrepreneurs be able to survive?
Should aspiring entrepreneurs abandon their dreams? Most of all, will they have
the right skills to survive in a post-pandemic scenario? In an effort to address
these crucial issues, The Daily Star Youth Summit 2020, on the occasion of
World Youth Skills Day, invited over 60 speakers to a series of webinars on July
15. And one of the key messages that came out of the summit was that young
people have to adapt to the technological demands of these extraordinary times.
Innovation, of course, is the overriding theme to survival and this was reiterated
by many of the industry leaders, successful young entrepreneurs and human
resources experts invited to the event.
The growing digitisation of the business process demands advanced
technological skills. Thus, there is a huge need for training in skills like data
analysis, web design, coding, artificial intelligence, blockchain and so on.
Moreover, the orientation to technology must start at an early age from school,
and so schools must be equipped with the resources to provide such learning. At
the university level, too, training in these skills has to be made available. No
doubt this requires huge investment and commitment especially in the public
educational institutions where IT learning is very limited or, as in many cases,
non-existent.
At the policy level, there has to be a major push to promote and provide training
in technological skills that are demanded in the job market—now and postpandemic.
While the government has already initiated programmes for such IT
skills training, these have to be accelerated and made more widespread to
positively affect the millions of young people in this country. Access to internet,
computers and smartphones and making these tools affordable must be a priority
for the government. The government, IT sector, and the private sector in general
must all work together to provide the environment for young people to acquire
these skills, apply them effectively, and be able to find employment with them.
In the present era, the scope for self-learning is limitless but it requires access to
technology.
It is true that the pandemic has led to a huge number of job losses for young
people. But it has also created a demand for a workforce that is tech-savvy and
innovative. And it is the young people who have the resilience to learn the skills
needed to become the problem-solvers of the future.

Word Meaning
 Rage: ক্ষোভ
 Fallout: বিপর্যয়
 Starkly:
 Accelerated:
 Tech-savvy: কারিগরি কান্ডজ্ঞান
 Resilience: স্বাভাবিক অবস্থায় প্রত্যাবর্ত ন

Summary
The Covid-19 which spreads all over the country and continuing and put an impact for
econimc disaster where the young people faced an uncertainty of their career. Some
question has arisen regarding getting their job with their existing skill, for the employers
to get employee and for interprenurs, survive and dream of them and in the post
pandemic situation will their existing still be helped them to survive. In this cruicial
moment on World Youth Skills Day (15th july) the Daily Star Youth Summit, 2020 has
taken an initiative to find out a solution from renowned persons who was the speakers of
the summit such as many industry leaders, successful interprenurs and human resources
experts where a key message came from the summit in favor of technology that if the
young people will be able to adopt technology as well as technological demands, they
will be survive in post pandemic.
In this technological era, business sectors needs technological skills but it demands to
increase training skills in various functions of technology. To adopt the technological
skill, it must be started from school level by providing necessary materials and in the
university level though a huge investment needed there for training as not every
university are not able to provide IT learning or some of has limited system but it must
have to be available .
To fulfill the demands of job markets whenever now or post pandemic, the policy
makers of government must need to promote technological training skills which the
government has already initiated and the public or private sectors are also working
together which spreads among the millions of youngers to aquire the skills and by
applying these to get job for survive. For this, it’s necessary to make easier and
affordable of the access to internet and computers as well as technological tools.
Though the pandemic has already making more people jobless but in this technological
era, its needed to create innovative idea by technological skills to survive as the
innovators can put their contribution as problem solvers in many sectors which is very
demandable in this pandemic or post pandemic all over the country.

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