Promotion of technical education, vocational training urged

LAHORE: All segments of society and the government should play their role in promotion of technical education and vocational training.

The industry and government jointly work for the development of the training sector in the developed countries. These views were expressed by the experts in Jang Economic Session held on making the role of technical education institutions active in national growth.

The panelists were Punjab Minister for Industry, Commerce and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal, Dr Ehsan Malik, Akther Bharwana, Sajid Naseer, Qamar-uz-Zaman and Sohail Lashari. The event was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Mian Aslam Iqbal said that if awareness was created among the children from the start of their education about the technical and vocational education, better results could be got. He said shortage of training was observed at every level.

He said the Punjab government was working for the promotion of cottage industry across the province to increase employment opportunities. He said unemployment could not be controlled without industrialisation. Dr Ehsan Malik said that almost 1,000 technical education institutes had failed to deliver in Punjab due to outdated curriculum and unavailability of required resources and funding. There is a need to increase resources to get good results in this regard, he added.

He suggested increase in waves of skilled labour to promote vocational education. Akther Bharwana called for imparting training to the teachers of the technical and vocational education institutes to fill the demand of local and international skilled human resource.

Sajid Naseer said the youths were both issue and solution in the country as transforming the 14.5 million youths into skilled labour force was crucial for the growth of the country.

He suggested improving the capacity of vocational institutions. He said informal sector could not be ignored for vocational training. He said the government independently could not do all work so the private sector should share the burden. He called for ending negative concept about vocational training.

Qamar-uz-Zaman said the government should evolve a strategy to produce workforce in accordance with the local and international requirements by giving importance to technical education institutions. He said unemployment could be reduced by producing certified technicians and workforce.

He also stressed the need for the public and private sectors to jointly launch technical and skilled development programmes to develop an effective training and employment system. Sohail Lashari said that informal training remained focus in the country which could not be ignored but there was a need to modernise and improve it to get better results.

He said curriculum should be research based and in accordance with the local and international requirements. He said industrialisation should be priority to adjust the skilled workforce. He stressed for replacing conventional training equipment with the modern one in government technical institutions.