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Thursday March 28, 2024

Vocational training can solve unemployment problem: Zulfiqar

By Mobarik A Virk
March 06, 2016

Islamabad

The Executive Director, National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema, said that unemployment, which is one of the biggest challenges being faced by the country, could be resolved by roping in the educated youth and imparting vocational and technical training to them, enabling them to start their own business.

Cheema was addressing the participants of the ‘Graduation Ceremony’ arranged by CODE and the MARAFIE Foundation for launching the ‘Gilgit-Baltistan Youth Development Programme’ at the Islamabad Club Friday.

“I have learnt that the CODE and MARAFIE Foundation have been doing a great job together and their efforts for the youth of these remote areas of Gilgit-Baltistan are highly commendable,” Mr Cheema said.

He said that the technical and vocational training is still an important area which requires immediate and intense attention to get hold of our youth bulge, which if not roped in, could turn into a negative segment of our society. These educated young people can easily become the prey of extremist and terrorist elements which are openly luring them.  He offered the services of his organization (NAVTTC) as he said that the young boys and girls from Gilgit-Baltistan would be welcome to join the vocational training and skill learning programmes being offered by the NAVTTC.

“We will provide training to the youth of your areas in the skills which will enable them to become self-employed and encourage entrepreneurship at the same time. While whole cost of these training and skill learning courses is being borne by the government, we are also offering a stipend of Rs2,500 to the students. I hope this year, with the new youngsters getting enrolled, the amount of this stipend would be increased to Rs3,000 per month. So, the educated youth from your areas should take the maximum advantage of this opportunity,” Mr Cheema said.

Earlier, Afzal Ali Shigri, a retired top police officer of the country said that it is his ambition to turn Gilgit-Baltistan into Pakistan’s ‘Silicon Valley’.

Highlighting the MARAFIE contributions towards education in Gilgit-Baltistan Afzal Shigri said that his Foundation was sponsoring 339 elementary schools and handed those to the government, the Army and the Non-Governmental Organisations. “We keep monitoring those schools and if found working well we award them and if they fail to attain our standards, we put those schools on the negative list,” Mr Shigri said.

He said that there were times when if a boy or a girl has completed her Master’s degree, it used to be a ‘News!’ “Now the area has produced 67 doctors, 100 engineers, and teachers from that area. Now the boys and girls from this area are doing their M.Phil and 50 students are doing their Ph.D. We are awarding 850 scholarships every year in the area. That is how we are contributing towards welfare, uplift and wellbeing of our people, our society and eventually our country,” Afzal Shigri said.

The CODE Director, Asif Jabbar said that he started the project in 2009 and started hiring while he was still in the US. “We have provided these young men and women the opportunity to feel as to what is there out in the world to achieve and how to go about the things surrounding them.  The CEO of CODE Wazahat Ali and Arshad Ali distributed the certificates among the successful students.