Preparing youth: ‘Underutilised training centres to be revived’

Around 50,000 youngsters to be trained for free under PM’s special programme

KARACHI: All those underutilised vocational training institutes that were established in former president Pervez Musharraf's era will now be fully utilised, said National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) executive director Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema.

He said this while talking to the media at a job fair and skill show of NATVCC trainees under the Prime Minister's Youth Skill Development Programme here on Tuesday. In order to use all vocational training institutes, he said they have asked the provincial governments to turn them into centres of excellence.

According to Cheema, phase three of the premier's programme will train 50,000 youngsters free of charge, while 25,000 were trained in phases one and two.

Referring to the process of admission, he said NAVTTC will give advertisements in the newspapers. Once they start receiving Expressions of Interest from different vocational training institutes, organisation will visit and evaluate the standards of those institutes, admit young candidates there and bear the cost of their study. He said Rs3,000 stipend will also be given to trainees that, according to him, has been increased from Rs2,000.

Cheema said once the training is over, they are ready to provide interest-free loans to the graduating students.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.