The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The 11th Five Year Human Resource Development (FYP HRD) master plan of the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources (MoLHR) mainly focuses on private sector development as it is considered the impetus for growth. The government has increased attention on developing the sector for employment generation as well as sustainable economic growth.
The FYP HRD master plan is more comprehensive in its scope and objectives to fulfill the role of MoLHR as the apex agencies for Human Resource Development and employment facilitation in the country.
The 11th FYP HRD master plan will provide strategic role of the MoLHR and private sector for both the in service as well as the pre service.
It will also provide an in-depth analysis of the current dynamics in the private sector. The master plan aims to pave way for the ministry to become an HRD facilitator rather than an implementer and also for HRD to be well integrated into the private sector functioning.
A main aspect of the plan is for education and training that is related to the lack of skilled workers in various categories of the employment sector. Most of this can be addressed through expanded pre-service vocational programs and in service HRD programs.
The master plan will seek to strike an appropriate balance between pre-service and in service programs between lower and higher level skills and knowledge.
Various economic sectors have been identified in accordance to the economic development policy which includes construction, power, education and training, childhood care and development, private schools, university education and TVET institutions, ICT, media and transport, communication industry, media industry, motion picture industry, music industry, transport industry, wood based industry, mining industry, agro based industry. handicraft industries, trading and service, tourism and hospitality and finance.
The 11th FYP HRD Master Plan will require a budget of Nu 2.78 bn, out of which 83% of the budget will be allocated for pre-service HRD programs. A total of 16,587 slots will be implemented and 89% of the slots is allocated for pre-service programs.
According to the plan, 90,000 jobs are expected to be created in the economy. Similarly the national HRD advisory document of 2012 projects that approximately 120,000 job seekers will enter the economy.
Currently, the ministry’s apprentice training program (ATP) covers 300-400 unemployed youth annually but is slated for expansion. The ATP system administration involves matching individual interest to the needs of the employers, drawing up contracts with the employers and disbursement of the monthly stipend based on a mast roll kept by the employer.
The ATP program will be expanded from current level of 300-400 to 660 annually. As in the past, these would be mainly in the hospitality and service industry.
It would provide incentive schemes to more technical programs instead of the arts stream for which there is already an oversupply. This needs to be supported with human resources such as lectures and professors with Masters and PhDs.
The 11th FYP in-service HRD plan and programs will be geared towards developing the critical HRD needs of the sector through Masters edcuation and short term programs with the focus on the private sector. Cross sectorial programs such as human resource management, occupational health and safety, risk management team building, people management, leadership and change management, business ethics, labour law and other programs will be provided to build human resource capacity of the private sector.
