NISTE to become technical university soon

Islamabad

The National Institute of Science and Technical Education (NISTE) will soon become a technical university.

This was disclosed by Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Balighur Rehman during the 14th board meeting of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission here on Wednesday.

The minister welcomed the new board members and said he hoped for great results from the NAVTTC under the guidance of its executive director, Zulfiqar Cheema.

“We’re way behind in the TVET education compared to other countries, so we need to work very hard on this sector. We should introduce demand-driven courses without ignoring the supply side,” he said.

The minister said he was a great proponent of the public-private partnership as it reduced the cost of business while improving efficiency and that the private sector should also be engaged for the purpose.

He said the government had given the country’s first technical and vocational education and training policy and introduced the competency-based training and recognition prior learning.

“We have also introduced the National Vocational Qualification Framework,” he said.

Talking about the technical industrial apprenticeship programme, the minister said some amendments had been proposed to the Apprenticeship Act 1962.

“We have suggested that 50 per cent of the minimum wage should be given to an intern or apprentice as a monthly salary. Education is a devolved subject so we will implement all these amendments in the capital territory only after getting its approval,” he said stressing for creating synergies and collaborations for excellence.

NAVTTC Executive Director Zulfiqar Cheema briefed the minister about the ongoing and future projects and the organisation’s working.

He told him about the establishment of the job placement center at the NAVTTC and said the quantity and quality of the trainings had been improved over a period of time.

“Now the NAVTTC is conducting training programmes through better institutes and ensuring their monitoring in an improved manner. Also, skill competition, job fairs, skill counseling and apprenticeship programme have been started,” he said.

The board approved 60 development projects under which 4861 youths will be trained at the cost of Rs181.9 million under the Prime Minister’s Hunarmand Pakistan Programme. In order to align existing system with international good practices, the board approved a modern apprenticeship training project to be introduced across the country with an estimated cost of Rs31.2 million.

Under the program, 600 trainees will be imparted with high level industrial on-job training. BoM also approved formulation of TVET Regulatory Framework and Federal Board of TVET Regulations.

Seventeen projects were approved for north and south Punjab, seven for Sindh, 15 for KP/Fata, 12 for Balochistan, and eight for Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Balochistan.

The meeting was attended by the NAVTTC chairman, board members, joint secretary of the federal education and professional training, joint secretary of industries and production, DFA (finance), and representatives of all provincial TEVTAs and various organisations.