Skills training key to employment: Haider

AJK premier hands over technical and vocational training certificates to 300 students

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Farooq Haider on Saturday handed over training completion certificates to the first batch of 300 skilled people trained under Competency Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) of AJK Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA).

The CBTA is an international best practice for linking skills training with the requirement of the job market in across the globe.

Speaking on the occasion, the PM Haider highlighted the importance of TVET and vowed that the government will extend its all-out support to equip the youth with job market related skills. “Skill training is the only solution to reduce unemployment in the region,” he added.

He further said: “we are working to give much more resources to government departments which are providing services to the community.”

Haider said that he believes in merit which is the only way to make AJK a role model for Pakistan.

Education Minister Barrister Iftikhar Gilani said that the demography of AJK is not suitable for any kind industry saying tourism and human resource are main areas that can give something to the region. “We have been working to promote technical education in the region.”

Gilani said they cannot provide jobs to the every educated youth and they must go for technical education where they can earn more than a serving officer of the government.



Executive Director National Vocational Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) Zulfiqar Ahmed Cheema appreciated the efforts of AJK TEVTA towards flourishing the TVET in the region and improving collaboration with the private sector for employability prospects for TVET graduates. Moreover, one thousand seats were allotted to AJK by the NAVTTC in modern demand trades. In collaboration with different relevant private sector institutions, the enterprise-based training in different trades is being imparted to the student.

TEVTA Chairman Zaffar Nabi Butt said that the government of AJK is spending more than Rs44,000 per year on a student in school and college while Rs4,000 are the expenditures of the same student in the technical institute.

“Unfortunately a student who gets the degree of graduation at the cost of Rs700,000 fails to hunt job while people who complete one-year technical course for just Rs4,000 earn over Rs30,000 per month and over Rs100,000 if they go abroad.

TEVTA Chairman Butt further said that from medical technology to social media marketing and tour operators more than 21 diploma courses are being offered to the students saying all the courses are completed in the practical filed.



On the sidelines of the ceremony, two Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were also signed between Shifa Foundation, Suzuki Muzaffarabad Motors, and AJK-TEVTA for improved partnership among the public-private sector and promote the development of curriculum and delivery of on-the-job training collectively for the mutual benefit of the public and private sector for the promotion and success of TVET sector. The collaborative efforts may not only result in creating better employment opportunities for the youth but also provide benefit to the industry for their resource interests.

Dr Manzoor Qazi Chairman Shifa Foundation, Shaukat Mehmood Qazi Chairman Suzuki Motors Muzaffarabad and Mr Zafar Nabi Butt Chairman AJK TEVTA represented their respective organizations while MoU signing.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2017.