Md Nasir Uddin Mahmud
In Bangladesh, business start-ups are not the tea party as many local businessmen, particularly novices or those new to the trade undergo short courses. Companies may have a lot of zeal and motivation, but strategic knowledge and practical training are often overwhelmingly lacking which results in failure. In sharp comparison, students in the US, UK, Canada and other nations are able to do business more successfully and launch their ventures after pursuing these formal educations. There is a need to investigate this imbalance further in order to understand the relevance of education in today’s entrepreneurial world.
Bangladesh is characterised as a country where starting a business is synonymous with being successful and wealthy. However, the difficulties of doing business in practice are rather high for most of the aspiring entrepreneurs. Primary Problems involve deficient background in finance, customer development, and marketing. All these abilities are essential to grow and develop any business and still, in most cases, they are taught only in a very expensive way of trial and error.
Yes, they provide some information on how to build a business, but in most cases their length is too short for one to fully grasp the idea. To add insult to these difficulties, the entrepreneurial setting in Bangladesh worsens them. Other contributing factors are poor exposure to cutting-edge technologies, lack of professional guidance, and inadequate startup funds. Given these circumstances, many entrepreneurs are unable to realize the promise of their ideas and simply quit the process.
Those who undertake education in countries such as the USA, UK, or Canada stand a better chance in business for several reasons. The education systems of these countries focus on practical approach, creativity, and critical reasoning such that they become useful to these people later on as they become entrepreneurs.
For instance, students pursuing business courses abroad are exposed to internship programs, practical projects, and case analysis which assist them transpose the theoretical aspects of the courses to practical situations. In addition to this, universities abroad have a strong industry title which encourages students to start their own business. Students have the means to have contacts in the form of consulted professors or investors which make them prepared enough to run their own businesses.
Such an approach makes it possible for a person to adequately understand issues and be ready to deal with them in any global business situation.
On the contrary, the education system in Bangladesh is more of rote learning and theoretical practicing while the practical application is confined. Business and management courses are often taught without an understanding of how to meet market demand or the availability of modern technologies. Students are thus educated, but not really prepared to engage and operate efficiently in the current globalized space.
Concepts of curricula changes oriented towards inclusion of entrepreneurial skills in tertiary institutions have been proposed in Bangladesh and they are encouraging though still at the very early stages. Change is gradual, and many curricula subjects do not reflect practice, for example, contemporary marketing, e-business or global business.
This systemic gap causes the situation of the developing and upcoming entrepreneurs as of under preparedness. Even the absence of these factors, the absence of exposure to advanced strategy corrosively affect many potential and developing entrepreneurs.
There is no doubt that education contributes to personal achievements as well as the economy of a country or even the world. The US, the UK and Canada have emerged as economic front-runners due to focus on high standard education that emphasises the need of creativity, innovation and the spirit of entrepreneurship. Their structures enable individuals to propel technology, start companies and integrate into the world economy.
On the contrary, Bangladesh continues to depend on traditional industries such as textiles and agribusiness. Although these industries are important, they do not offer the type of diversification that is essential for sustaining a strong economy in the long run. For Bangladesh to be competitive in the global market, its education system needs to be changed to create entrepreneurs who are creative, flexible and can succeed in an ever changing world.
Bridging the Gap With their transnational partnerships in mind, most organisers involve undisputed knowledge of best practices, however do not seem to have conceptualised how, and added to this, it reforms other believes that return to static situations, once proper practices have been established, is not necessary. Moving forward, Bangladesh is fully engaged in addressing these challenges, if these are addressed through educational reforms. If this is so, what is the transformation of education that will enable it to play this forward-looking role? For those who operate in the environment of an applied or practice-oriented university and would like to focus on the issue of relevance and significance of the contribution of education to the country/society, the focus of this argument may be educational practice. Based on the findings, the following steps can be developed:
Practical Learning: include project compositions, internship experience, case studies which will bring learners closer to embedding their knowledge into practice and attending enterprises.
Create centers and programs for supportive business ventures in the universities, Liaison with foreign organisations to facilitate resources, know-how and best practices to promote entrepreneurial study ,Revise course materials to incorporate most relevant business practices such as e-marketing, international business, and electronic commerce,Enable learners to advanced devices, available funding, and other professional contacts to undergird their enterprise ambitions.
The challenges that Bangladeshi entrepreneurs encounter indicate the potential for the foreign workers to disrupt and enhance the present education system. The youth of Bangladesh can not only be shielded from unemployment but can also be taught to run successful businesses. If the focus is placed on improving the country’s education, it can create a robust and self-sustaining entrepreneurial culture and education can lift the country to new economic heights.
In the present landscape, however, Bangladesh finds itself at a decisive point. Education must be nationalised, national cohesion and stability ensured, and a coherent plan must be devised to prepare the nation for competing on a global scale, in industry, sport, academia or education. The period to act has come.
Author: Alumni of Notre Dame College ,Dhaka
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