Australia has been assisting Bhutan in its Human Resource development since Bhutan joined the Colombo plan in 1962. Since then, the civil service always received the greater share of Australia awards scholarships over the private and corporate sector.
At the Australia Awards farewell event yesterday, the Secretary of the Labour and Human Resources called for an increase in the number of slots for the private and corporate sectors, saying the two sectors employ more a thousand Bhutanese as opposed to the Civil Service, which employs only twenty five thousand Bhutanese.
Pema Wangda’s association with the Australia awards scholarships dates back to early 1980s. As an officer closely involved in the country’s HRD development programme for the last 32 years, he shared that with no dedicated donors for the HRD development programmes of the private and the corporate sectors, he always have had to bargain with the RCSC for a greater share of Australia awards scholarships slots for the private and corporate sector.
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“We have been successful to some extent but not fully to our satisfaction. Why? Today, we get 40 percent of the scholarship slots for sectors that employ more than a hundred thousand Bhutanese, whereas the civil service, which employs only twenty five thousand Bhutanese, gets 60 percent of the share.”
The secretary also said the two sectors have the burden of creating jobs for the majority of country’s job seekers.
He added, given a choice, almost all the jobseekers would opt for a job in the civil service. He said one of the reasons cited is that there are many opportunities for higher education in the civil service and very little in the private and corporate sectors.
He went on to make a convincing case for his bargain, saying if the private and corporate sectors are to be promoted as an engine of growth, the government must continue to support their HRD programmes.
The Deputy High Commissioner of the Australian High Commission in New Delhi, Bernard Philip, said it hopes to have close dialogue with the Bhutanese government on it.
Since 2008, more than 90 Bhutanese outside the civil service have benefited from the Australia awards scholarships.
