BRAC Institute of Languages (BIL) has conducted four two-day-long Training of Trainers (ToT) sessions at Bangladesh-Korea Technical Training Centre (BKTTC) between July 9, 2014 and July 22, 2014 for the instructors selected from the Technical Training Centres (TTCs) under the Bureau of Manpower, Employment & Training (BMET) on the English–Bangla–Arabic language modules developed by a team of BIL faculty members. These modules have been designed for the limited-English-proficient migrant workers of four trades – namely the housekeepers, the care-givers, the electricians and the construction workers. The project, developed under a service contract with the International Labour Organization (ILO), started with the signing of the agreement by all the concerned parties on November 14, 2013 and was completed on July 30, 2014.
Historically, Bangladeshi migrant workers have been exploited by recruiting agencies at home and by employers abroad because of their limited English-Arabic language proficiency and trade skills. Particularly, the female migrant workers, who are common choices for the profession of housekeeping and care-giving, are subjected to higher amount of exploitation. Hence, the tripartite collaboration of BIL, ILO and BMET aims to significantly empower the vulnerable migrant workers with survival competency in Arabic and English language.
In this regard, the team of BIL faculty members has developed trade-specific English-Bangla-Arabic modules, which will be used to equip the migrant workers that BMET directly deals with (which is about four million in number). To ensure maximum learning outcome, the team has adopted modern and updated teaching techniques, which will help learners of different learning abilities and will bring diversity in the language classrooms of the TTCs. Two of the special features of the modules are the extensive use of photos to teach vocabulary and, perhaps for the first time in this kind of project in the field of ESP (English for Specific Purpose), the use of simple audio-visual teaching materials.
Notably, this is the first project where BIL has worked with both ILO and BMET. Hence, during the ToT sessions with the selected instructors of the TTCs, the BIL faculty members have shared the rationale of developing these modules, particularly attempting to disseminate the language teaching ideas which worked behind these ESP modules and to give them feedback on their facilitations so as to help them effectively implement the modules in the respective TTCs.
It is worth mentioning, it is believed that the migrant workers with a higher language proficiency level would prove to be a major foreign currency source for Bangladesh, probably second only to the RMG sector.