Technical institutions achieve target: minister

Lahore

Provincial Minister for Labour and Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has said that, according to the vision of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for skilled youth and prosperous Punjab, Skill Development Programme has started giving positive results as technical institutions have achieved the target set for 2015-16 for imparting vocational and technical education to the youth, providing them with jobs and meeting the demands of local and international labour markets. 

He stated this while presiding over a meeting of Punjab Skill Development Committee at P&D Auditorium on Wednesday. P&D Chairman Jehanzeb Khan, Tevta Chairman Irfan Qaisar Sheikh, representatives from Punjab Vocational Training Council, World Bank, GIZ and international consultancy agency TTT also attended the meeting.

The minister informed the meeting that World Bank had given funds of 50 million dollars whereas Punjab government allocated 6.3 million dollars for this project. 

The meeting was informed that different departments would also give their recommendations and nominate their staff member for skill training for their capacity building. 

SMU Project DirectorAmeer Khatak said that labour market information system would be strengthened whereas an independent and accredited Punjab Skill Authority would be established along with restructuring of Tevta.

He said that job-oriented Punjab Skill Development Strategy 2015-20 was also under process to ensure better governance, quality and demand-driven training of the youth.  

Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar expressed his indignation on provincial departments for not showing progress in the skill development programme and directed the secretaries and authorities concerned to take interest in the project and meet the targets within the time-frame.  

More hostels: Provincial Minister for Women Development, Hameeda Waheed-ud-Din has said that more hostels and daycare centres for working women will be set up in next financial year.

She was talking to women assembly members at her office, here Wednesday. Hameeda Waheed-ud-Din said that working women hostels and daycare centres had been set up in different cities of the province under the government’s vision of economic empowerment of women. She said that working women belonging to towns and villages coming to cities for employment were benefiting from this facility.

She said that working women could stay at these hostels at the payment of a nominal fee. She said the government was taking various measures for active participation of women in economic activities.