In the context of sustainable development, the textile industry in Bangladesh is currently placing greater emphasis on compliance with social and environmental sustainability standards. To this end, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing the project “Higher Education and Leadership Development for Sustainable Textiles in Bangladesh (HELD)” on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The aim of the project is to strengthen the application-oriented competencies of future specialists and managers in the textile industry in the field of sustainable business management.
The HELD project recognizes the importance of synergies between academia and business for sustainable development and therefore considers collaboration with universities as a top priority. To foster collaboration with universities, the HELD Project recently signed agreements with the Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTEX, Bangladesh) and Hof University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
Two-year collaboration for common goals
Under this two-year collaboration, the two universities will work together to achieve the following goals:
- Introduce social and environmental sustainability topics and modules into the bachelor’s degree programs of BUTEX and its affiliated textile colleges
- Introduction of a master’s degree program in “Sustainable Textile Engineering” at BUTEX
- Further training of faculty members at universities and textile colleges to equip them with improved technical and methodological knowledge in teaching sustainability topics
- Establish a network among faculty members from different universities in Bangladesh and abroad to help professionalize and disseminate good practices and strengthen universities in sustainability dialogue with the textile industry
Through this agreement, GIZ Bangladesh and partner universities will work together with the common goal of developing future leaders with the necessary skills to promote sustainability in the textile sector of Bangladesh
