Skilled youth offered aid for overseas employment

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has inaugurated a "Parwaz Card" initiative aimed at providing financial support and employment opportunities to skilled youth.

Addressing graduates of technical training institutes, she said 250,000 young people had completed technical training, while over 114,000 had secured employment, including 97,000 within Pakistan and 33,000 abroad. She also launched three initiatives — Creative Hands, Rah-e-Rozgar, and a Skill Development Portal — to strengthen the province's skills ecosystem.

Under the Parwaz Card programme, the chief minister announced interest-free financial assistance of up to Rs300,000 for skilled youth, particularly those seeking overseas employment, to help them avoid exploitation by agents.

She met 90 students who had completed training, enquiring about their skills and employment. She expressed happiness over their success. including a mosque imam who had completed an electrician's course. She also met transgender students and assured them of dignity, inclusion and state support.

Speaking to graduates of institutions affiliated with the Punjab Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Department, she said the government wanted to invest every rupee of the provincial treasury in the youth, adding that scholarships alone were not enough and the state was now ensuring training, market access and employment.

She said more than 200,000 young people across Punjab had gained access to improved opportunities, while government teams had been sent to the Gulf region to explore job markets for Pakistani youth. She noted that skilled workers were now earning up to $500 per month by working from home after completing vocational training in fields such as tile fixing, welding, electrical wiring, IT and e-commerce.