PHOTO: APP
LAHORE: As many as 100,000 skilled workers will be sent from all over the country to Qatar over the next three years, Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) Chairperson Irfan Qaiser Shaikh said at a meeting at the Tevta office on Monday. He said 250 workers will be sent as part of the pilot project soon after Ramazan.
The Tevta chairperson held the meeting to discuss his visit to Qatar. Chief Operating Officer Jawad Ahmed Qureshi, General Managers Abdul Qayyum, Hamid Ghani Anjum, Azhar Iqbal Shad and Foreign Placement Consultant Amer Hassan were present on this occasion.
Shaikh said the government had decided to send the workers through Tevta’s placement cell in order to ensure transparency and quality.
For this purpose, a one-window operation has been set up at the Tevta secretariat to facilitate workers in obtaining passports, medical check-ups, depositing the protector’s fee, obtaining NADRA cards and other travel arrangements, he said.
Shaikh said the workers will be assigned work on the construction of stadiums, hotels and infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. He said three government departments – Tevta, the Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) and the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) – were working on a proposal to export labour to Qatar and the private sector.
Shaikh told participants of the meeting that Tevta would be the major partner helping Qatar meet its requirement for skilled workforce.
Shaikh said that he had visited Qatar along with Minister for Labour and Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, USAID consultant Syed Fakhar and PVTC Chairman Faisal Ijaz Khan. He said they held successful meetings with Dr Abdullah, Qatar’s labour minister, the Doha Chamber of Commerce, the chief executive of FIFA 2022 in Qatar, and leading industrialists and businessmen. Shaikh said they promised to provide job opportunities to Pakistan’s trained manpower.
He said Tevta would help train the workforce by upgrading key trades including executives, paramedics, computer operators, operators (crane, excavator, and shovel), heavy-duty drivers, associate engineers, supervisors, machine/motor mechanics, carpenters, steel fixers, painters, masons, cooks, housekeepers, plumbers, welders, air-condition mechanics, hotel staff and generator operators.
Shaikh said Qatar’s Authorities will facilitate the workforce through considerations like the costs of visa, air travel, local transport, food and accommodation which would be borne by the employer. A clear job description, definition of minimum age, salary package including overtime for various skills, medical fitness requirement, job duration (per contract) and medical insurance would be ensured, he said.
Tevta, PVTC and PBTE will conduct tests to verify workers’ skills and Tevta will attest skills of workers for private institutions. “We believe that our skilled labour force can contribute to Qatar’s development,” Shaikh said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2015.
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