Vocational and Technical Education designed to provide opportunities to the students to acquire employable skills. Vocational education is available for providing orientation to the secondary school graduates and skill development through formal and non-formal education programmes.

The vocational education curriculum integrates general education and vocational skill content. The general education part here gives more stress on application. The National Skill Standard (NSS) content is the vocational content. National Skill Standard classifications are Basic, NSS II and Master. The articulated vocational education programmes are Secondary School Certificate (Vocational) or SSC (Voc), Higher Secondary Certificate (Vocational) or HSC (Voc), and Higher Secondary Certificate (Business Management) or HSC (BM).

The SSC (Voc) courses are for two years comprising grades IX and X of the school years. Students are required to attend 1,512 periods of instruction in the institution plus 8-week on-the-job attachment in a year. A student passing SSC (Voc) courses can go for further education in the technical and vocational education stream or in the general stream or can enter the job market as NSS grade II skilled worker. The entry requirement for SSC (Voc) is eight years of successful schooling in the general stream of education. The institutions that offer SSC (Voc) courses include 500 secondary schools, 64 vocational training institutes, and 12 technical training centres. The SSC (Voc) courses offered are in the areas of agriculture, ceramic, engineering, fisheries, leather, livestock, textile, etc. The number of first year students in the government and private institutions in different trade areas is 53,480.

The HSC (Voc) is a two-year programme comprising class XI and XII of the school years. The HSC (Voc) students are required to attend 1,512 periods of instructions in the institution plus 8 weeks on-the-job attachment training in two years. A student after passing HSC (Voc) course can go for further education in technical, engineering and general stream of education or can enter into the job market as NSS grade I, highly skilled worker. The entry requirement for HSC (Voc) is SSC (Voc) in the respective specialised areas. The first year intake capacity of HSC (Voc) programme is 2,800 students. The HSC (Voc) courses are offered in 64 vocational training institutes.

HSC (BM) students are required to attend 1,440 periods of institutional instruction in a year plus 8-week on-the-job training. A student after passing HSC (BM) course can go for further education in the general stream, especially in the business education area or can enter the job market for lower level office and related management activities. The course has 5 specialisations in the area of computer operation, secretarial science, accounting, banking and entrepreneurship. The entry requirement for HSC (BM) course is Secondary School Certificate in any branch. The HSC (BM) course is being offered in 243 institutions. The first year intake capacity is only 9,720 students. The teacher student ratio in the vocational education programme is about 1:12.

Technical education programme is designed to produce mid-level technical supervisory workforce with employable skills in different specialised areas. The technical courses are of three-year duration. The entry requirement is Secondary School Certificate in any branch. The technical diploma courses are offered in 20 polytechnic institutes (and twenty more polytechnic institutes are being established), 17 agricultural institutes, 6 textile institutes, 1 forest school, one printing school and 1 glass and ceramic institute. The first year enrolment capacity in all these institutions is more than 13,000. The teacher-student ratio is about 1:10. All technical and vocational courses are affiliated with the Bangladesh Technical Education Board.

There are two main types of vocational teachers' education programmes. One is vocational teachers education certificate and the other is diploma vocational teachers' education programme. These courses are offered in the Vocational Teachers Training Institute, Bogra. The entry requirement for the vocational teachers' education certificate is SSC (Voc) or diploma engineering, while the requirement for the diploma vocational teachers' education is vocational teachers education certificate. These courses are affiliated with the Bangladesh Technical Education Board. The enrolment capacity of the Vocational Teachers Training Institute is 120.

Teachers' training for the technical teachers is offered in the Technical Teachers' Training College in Dhaka. This college offers one-year diploma technical education and two-year BSc in technical education. The entry requirement for diploma technical teachers' education is diploma engineering and that for BSc in technical education is diploma technical education. The diploma technical education course is affiliated with the Bangladesh Technical Education Board and the BSc in technical education with the university of dhaka. The enrolment capacity of the Technical Teachers Training College is 120.

Technological courses are offered for producing professional technologists in the fields of textile and leather. Specialisations available in textiles are yarn manufacture, fabric manufacture, wet processing and garment technology and those available in the area of leather technology are leather, footwear and leather product technology. The duration of these courses is four years. The entry requirement is higher secondary certificate that is 12 years of schooling in the science group. The courses on textile technology are offered in the College of Textile Technology, Dhaka and those on leather technology in the College Leather Technology, Dhaka. The first year enrolment capacity 160 and 120 for the Colleges of Textile Technology and Leather Technology respectively. [Abdur Rafique]