Technically speaking: NAVTEC takes on skills training of Pakistani youth
According to NAVTEC officials, they hope the new measures will prove a significant step forward for the industrial sector. The Government of Pakistan also plans to accommodate its overseas citizens through different agreements in other countries under a similar scheme. NAVTEC chairperson Mumtaz AKhtar Kahloon recently stated that a summary for Rs543 million had been sent to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani regarding the training of skilled labour. “We need to not only focus on technical training for workers but also to ensure that it is the latest training,” Kahloon said, adding that a sizeable amount was being allocated to ensuring that new and innovative methods were used in student training.
Kahloon admitted that technical education in Pakistani institutes including TEVTA had been mostly with 20-year-old technology. “We haven’t updated the system in decades but now we hope to upgrade it to meet with international standards. This will give us a competitive edge,” he said.
Kahloon also invited several international technical training institutes to invest in Pakistan. He said that a Rs2,000 scholarship would now be offered to all students and special attention would be given to people hailing from flood zones. “There is a lot of unemployment in the flood zones and one of the means to combat this is technical training,” he said. Kahloon said that NAVTEC aimed to provide technical skills courses for all ages. “Our focus is people between the ages of 15 and 30 but we are also designing courses specifically for primary and middle schools,” he said. “This will allow children to develop skills and extra curricular portfolios a long with their regular schooling,” he said.
One year courses will be on offer after March, 2011 and preference will be given to unemployed people aged between 15 to 30 years. NAVTEC had also filed a report stating that 42 districts in Pakistan are currently without any technical and vocational training institutes. “These places severely lack skills training and that greatly hampers the industry. It puts a stopper on growth,” said NAVTEC official Waqar Raza.
NAVTEC plans to endorse the President Program for Technical Education in every district in Pakistan and to motivate the nation by providing the means towards developing a skilled labour force. “We will start with Punjab and other provinces are to follow the same programme,” Kahloon said.
The Labour Ministry and several organisations run by overseas Pakistanis have devised a policy to accommodate trained labourers in other countries, especially in the Middle East and European countries. “The NAVTEC programme will equip workers with the necessary skills that will get them jobs in the international marketplace,” said British Pakistani entrepreneur Salman Hayat.
Kahloon said that Japan and Korea planned to invest and train students in Pakistan in technical education worth $30 million. Italy has already plans to construct a new centre of excellence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for technical education and vocational institutes.
President Yousaf Raza Gilani has allocated special funds for flood zones with regards to technical education for skilled labour. This initiative includes Rs376 million for flood affected districts in Southern Punjab. “Women and children below the age of 10 have been given a special quota and they will be provided with complete financial assistance,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2011.
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