Why is there such a gulf in the popular perception of Indians and Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom? Indian are the best performing ethnic group in terms of educational attainment; thus we take for granted Indian doctors, technologists and celebrate Indian entrepreneurs. In contrast Bangladeshis are portrayed as a community suffering from poverty and disadvantage. We read that three quarters of Bangladeshi children are living in households below the poverty line. Unemployment amongst Bangladeshis is around twice the national average. It does not surprise us to learn that Bangladeshi children have amongst the lowest levels of educational attainment in the United Kingdom. This is a pretty bleak picture of despair. Poverty and social exclusion wastes talent and stifles potential. In this article we focus on education and professional attainments, look at some of the reasons why Bangladeshis have not fared well, and described a new initiative from the BBPA, the Career Development Network, which will address some of these concerns.

Bangladeshis are relatively recent migrants to the United Kingdom, and come from predominantly rural areas. Although the first generation to arrive in the UK came during the economic boom years of the early 1960’s, this group consisted almost entirely of unskilled young men. Their dependents came to settle much later – during the 1980’s. Many of these families were transplanted into hostile British inner cities from rural communities in Bangladesh with poor educational resources, no identifiable tradition of secondary and higher education. Most arrived with limited language skills, indeed many lacked basic literacy even in their native Bengali.

Nevertheless, educational qualifications are highly valued within the community. People with higher educational qualifications are regarded in high esteem, and the value of higher education as a force for social mobility is well understood. So why have Bangladeshis performed so badly? One set of factors could be described as socio-economic barriers:

 Limited fluency in English amongst parents meant that they could not give practical guidance with homework. This can also lead to serious problems liaising with schools.
 Bad housing and serious overcrowding could make it difficult for young people to carry out homework
 Relative poverty meant that there may be pressure to leave school and start working as soon as they could in order to help with the family’s financial difficulties.

However, equally important are motivational factors:

 Lack of positive expectations from schools and teachers, and negative and patronising stereotypes concerning language abilities and the nature of their home communities.
 Lack of knowledge amongst parents of higher educational institutions, entry points and processes means that they are not in a position to provide good advice.
 Lack of successful role models. This reinforces negative stereotypes and diminishes confidence. It creates an impression in the mind of many young Bangladeshis that higher education and ultimately a professional career is beyond their grasp.

More recently, concerted efforts by government, local authorities and schools to address the socio-economic factors have produced some spectacular results. For example, in Tower Hamlets, Bangladeshi children have become the highest achievers in the borough. Bangladeshis number as one of fastest growing ethnic group for university admission. Anecdotally, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of young Bangladeshi professionals. For example the BBPA now has approximately 500 members. However, we should not be lulled into a false sense of victory – even if the BBPA represents 5% of the UK’s young Bangladeshi professionals, there is still a long way to go for a community of 400,000. In addition, it is interesting to note the following

 Bangladeshis are over-represented in new universities by comparison with older and more prestigious ones.
 Bangladeshi graduates suffer from higher levels of unemployment
 There is a strong preference within the older Bangladeshi community for particular vocational professions – for example, medicine, law, accountancy, and this is reflected in the subject choice of university applications.
 Hardly any representation of Bangladeshis in senior jobs in the public, private and mainstream voluntary sectors.

Amongst the core founding objectives of the BBPA are the desire to increase educational attainment within the Bangladeshi community and increase the representations of Bangladeshis at all levels in private and public sectors. In particular, we have chosen to focus on eliminating the motivational barriers to attainment through

 Using role models. Role models are very important because knowing successful professionals make the act of becoming one yourself seem much more credible. Professionals from the BBPA membership will be approached so that we can hear their stories of inspiration, struggle and determination, hurdles overcome and successes attained.
 Promoting of success stories
 Encouraging positive expectations from schools, teachers and parents
 Inspiring confidence by providing a support network to provide ongoing advice.

Over the past few years, the BBPA have sponsored a number of projects to address these motivational barriers, including

 The Mentoring Project in Tower Hamlets. This was a pilot project targeting 14-15 years in two schools within Tower Hamlets and organised in conjunction with the Tower Hamlets Business Enterprise Partnership. BBPA members volunteered as mentors and involved regular one-to-one meetings between mentors and mentees over a period of a year.
 The Careers Fair in Kings Cross (2000). This focused on easing the transition from higher education to full-time employment for Bangladeshi graduates, and was supported by a range of employers including the Civil Service, ABN AMRO Bank, Metropolitan Police and the Teacher Training Agency.

Going forward, we want to build on our experiences through a new initiative: the BBPA Careers Development Network. This will attempt to tackle some of the above motivational barriers through practical activities such as

 An Annual Careers Fair that brings together leading employers and specifically focuses on young British-Bangladeshis. An objective is to alert recruiters to a pool of talent that they may have overlooked in their current recruitment strategies.

 Career Briefings aimed at undergraduates and recent graduates – presentations by BBPA members and including participation by major recruiters. The objective is to increase confidence in graduate job seekers by introducing role models, promoting success stories, and increase their employability through advice on completing application forms, CV writing and interview techniques.

 Careers Briefings for schools – presentations by BBPA members focusing on career paths within specific professions, e.g. law, finance, information technology. This would be aimed at 15-17 year olds contemplating higher education. The objective is to inspire confidence by providing an opportunity to meet others from similar backgrounds who have successfully completed the journey from secondary education to professional careers.

 Mentoring/provision of role models, and advice on an individual basis.

 Disseminate career related news (e.g. job vacancies) through existing BBPA channels (e.g. BBPA email network, website)

 Contributing to shaping Government policy in education and training through response to Government white papers, briefing ministers/civil servants, and lobbying.