Industry Skills Councils (ISCs) are sector-specific, industry-led bodies that act as the critical bridge between employers, the government, and the national skills training system in Bangladesh. Operating primarily as non-profit organizations registered under the Companies Act and recognized by the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA), ISCs are the primary mechanism for ensuring that vocational education remains strictly demand-driven. They bring together major enterprises, trade associations, workers, and government representatives within a specific economic sector (such as ICT, Leather, Agro-food processing, or the Informal Sector) to collaboratively govern workforce development.
In the context of a Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBT&A) framework, the ISCs hold immense strategic authority. They are directly responsible for identifying current and future skill shortages, conducting skills needs assessments, and translating those industry demands into formal educational requirements. This is achieved by leading the development and validation of National Occupational Standards (NOS) and Competency Standards (CS). Because the ISCs dictate the exact Performance Criteria a worker must meet, they ensure that the learning materials (CBLMs) and assessment tools used by training providers produce graduates who are immediately job-ready and aligned with actual market realities.
Beyond curriculum development, ISCs play a pivotal role in the broader skills ecosystem by advocating for policy changes, fostering industry-academia partnerships, and promoting the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) to help uncertified workers gain formal credentials. While they historically faced challenges related to resource constraints and coordination, the NSDA has increasingly prioritized their capacity building. Recent initiatives, such as institutional support provided through the ASSET project, aim to strengthen the ISCs’ technical infrastructure, empowering them to drive the modernization, standardisation, and global competitiveness of Bangladesh’s workforce