Chief Adviser Yunus Demands End to Fake Skills Certificates to Save Bangladesh’s Reputation

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus ordered a rigorous crackdown today on the forgery of skill development certificates, warning that fake credentials threaten Bangladesh’s standing in the international labor market.

Presiding over a meeting of the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA) in Tejgaon, Yunus stressed that while global demand for Bangladeshi workers is high, fraud is eroding employer trust.

"All these frauds must be stopped," Yunus said, issuing a blunt warning that if international employers lose confidence in the validity of Bangladeshi training, the nation’s entire skill-building strategy will fail.

The Chief Adviser emphasized the need for a "brand image" where employers can be certain that any worker arriving from Bangladesh is genuinely qualified. To achieve this, the NSDA is moving toward a unified standard certification system to be used by all training institutions, making it significantly harder to forge documents.

The governing body approved a plan to create an "integrated skills ecosystem." This initiative aims to ensure all government ministries use the same curriculum and competency standards. Consolidate public funding to prevent overlapping programs. Map the Bangladesh National Qualifications Framework to international benchmarks. Allow workers in the informal sector to receive national certification based on their prior experience.

The meeting, only the second since the NSDA’s founding in 2018, also focused on long-term goals as Bangladesh prepares to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status.

Yunus praised the nation’s youth as "highly creative and full of potential," stating that the government’s primary role is to open doors for them by fostering a transparent, private-sector-friendly environment.