The Hunar Foundation awards diplomas to 193 graduates from three batches

Students receive training in five trades, including electrical, mechanical and plumbing.

KARACHI:

The Hunar Foundation’s DMS Technical Institute handed out international vocational qualification diplomas to 193 students in five trades at its second graduation ceremony on Saturday.

The students of three batches, after receiving training for a year, got the diplomas from the globally recognised City & Guilds, UK, and certificates from the Sindh Trade Testing Board in five trades - electrical, mechanical, welding, plumbing, refrigeration and air-conditioning.

At the occasion, The Hunar Foundation’s founding member, Adnan Asdar, told the graduating students Pakistan was the best place for them to work. “All you need is to work hard. Now when you have graduated from this institute and you are entering into the professional world, you have to work very hard for only three years to polish your technical skills and preferably be with at one place during that time,” he said.

Asdar added that Pakistan was a resilient country - it produced enough wheat, cotton and rice to fulfill the demand in the country the year it was hit by the disastrous floods. “You have to represent your country internationally - it is your motherland and it needs your support as it grows old.”

Asdar asked the students to use their skills and find solutions for the problems existing in their neighborhood and in their community.

Need of the hour

Talking to The Express Tribune, the foundation’s CEO, Khalid Siddiqi, said that at the moment, there are around 60 million people between the age of 15 and 25 years which need to be trained. “We’re just a drop of water in the river but we are extending our network of institutions and expect to have 30 institutes of technical and vocational training within the next 10 years,” said Siddiqi, adding that the cost of each student per month is around Rs8,000 out of which only Rs1,000 is paid by the student. “We can give them free education but then they will not take their responsibilities properly.”

According to the CEO, the industry needs trained workforce and the foundation was trying its best to meet the demands.

City & Guilds, UK sends the papers for the students and also checks them. Along with technical skills, each student receives English language training. Around 91 per cent of the students reportedly successfully passed their exams, out of which at least 50 per cent scored distinctions.

Best of the lot

For Waqas Pervaiz, a graduate of refrigeration and air-conditioning, it was an especially memorable day - not only did he receive the globally recognised diploma but was also honoured with the Best of the Batch award for his good behaviour, punctuality, good communication skills and excellent performance in class exams.

“My father is a labourer in a private factory and a diploma from City & Guilds, UK seemed impossible for me because of the high cost,” Pervaiz told The Express Tribune. “Instead of thinking of moving abroad, I would prefer a good job in Pakistan.”

Parvaiz worked part-time to meet his monthly fee for the diploma.

For Ghulam Murtaza, another graduate of refrigeration and air-conditioning, the diploma made him an electrician in the real meaning. “I used to work in a shop as an air-conditioner electrician but I had no knowledge about how an AC worked and what different parts of it did. I could repair it but couldn’t explain to people what was actually wrong with it,” said Murtaza, who was given the Best of the Trade award for his performance. “Prior to my time with The Hunar Foundation, I had no theoretical information about ACs and particularly about the safety measures while working with them. But now, I believe I can even converse with a foreign engineer about what the fault is and how it can be fixed.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2013.