The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights universities offer undergraduate and graduate programmes and some specialized institutes offer undergraduate programmes such as glass and ceramics, textile, leather and graphic arts. At the next lower level, skill training is being imparted through public sector polytechnic institutes and private sector polytechnics. Similarly, there are agricultural training institutes in both the public sector and the private sector. Under the Ministry of Education, public sector technical schools and colleges (TSCs) offer courses to meet the requirements of the National Skill Standard Grade III (semi-skilled level), Grade II (skilled level) and Grade I (professional or highly skilled level). In addition, there are textile institutes, specialised textile vocational centres, technical training centres, and nurses training institutes. A number of private textile institutes are in place, but very few of the readymade garment workers are trained there. Vocational training facilities for women have been expanded and diversified over the years. Part-time, short-term and ad hoc courses are also organised by these institutes to meet the needs of local industries. Some courses are also organised for housewives and others in trades like the repair of common domestic appliances, hair and skin care, dressmaking etc. Technical Training Centres (TTCs) under the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) offer regular 2-year vocational training courses and 6-month special courses whose demand is increasing. Besides, TTCs offer many other special short-term skill upgrading courses at the request of the employers. The Department of Youth Development (DYD) has imparted skill development training to youth in different trades. The government will expand and diversify training facilities, especially for women and upgrade and re-orient the quality and content of vocational training in general to cater to the emerging needs of the economy. TSCs that can train school dropouts can be expanded from the current 64 upazilas to other upazilas. Vocational training schools at upazila level will be established with some courses of six months’ duration. To the extent that a sizeable proportion of employment would have to be self-employment in small units in various sectors, the training system 60 would include entrepreneurship, management and marketing skills. Steps towards this end may include revision of courses, introduction of new courses like computer hardware, medical electronics, consumer electronics and industrial electronics, revising space norms for workshops and activating the National Council for Skill Development and Training (NCSDT). This NCSDT is supposed to be a high level inter-ministerial committee to provide overall policy direction but it remains inactive. Setting skill standards, assuring quality of skill training, integrating skill training to the world of work, enforcing the law in respect of emoluments of Vocational and Technical Education (VTE) trained manpower, industrial disputes etc. are the major responsibilities of the NCSDT which could contribute to developing skilled workers. Formal sector workers, particularly in the garments sector, endure low wages, failure of employers to pay arrears, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions and unjust termination and dismissal. In the absence of effective trade union activity, there is little opportunity for collective articulation of these grievances or their redress. Even where trade union representatives continue to operate informally, they have limited impact, given the existing divisions amongst them, and more importantly, their failure to represent more than a small percentage of the labour force. The annual flow of migrant workers has increased from 6,087 in 1976 to 1,407,705 in 2008 with an annual rate of growth of 18.5 percent. But a substantial number of the expatriate wage earners are victims of unscrupulous manpower agents who extract substantial sums of money from job seekers for arranging employment abroad. In this context, innovative schemes for funding the prospective job seekers abroad are needed. The government has already taken a number of measures for the welfare of remittance earning workers. The Wage Earners’ Welfare Fund is being used for several important activities like repatriation of mortal remains of workers from host countries, burials, and financial assistance to the sick and distressed and to heirs of the deceased who are not getting any compensation from the employer. To recognize the contributions of middle and lower-middle class expatriate wage earners, a new policy for giving the remitters special citizens’ privileges has been formulated in 2008. The Expatriates Welfare Desk has been set up in districts with 61