19 Centres of Excellence to be set up to prepare skilled manpower

LAHORE:In a bid to prepare skilled manpower Punjab govt will build 19 Centres of Excellence and in this regard Provincial Minister for Industries and Commerce Chaudhry Shafay Hussain laid the foundation stone of the project in Government College of Technology at Allama Iqbal Town on Wednesday.

Under the project, Centres of Excellence will be established in 16 institutions of Tevta and three institutions of Punjab Vocational and Training Council. The project will cost Rs5 billion and these 19 centres of excellence are being built with the support of Asian Development Bank.

Speaking at the event, Shafay said that the plan to establish centres of excellence in Punjab is a milestone in the preparation of skilled manpower. Completion of the project will increase the efficiency and professional technical skills of these institutions. CBTA based courses will be conducted on modern lines in all these centres of excellence. Chaudhry Shafay apprised that under this project, access to technical and vocational education will be easy. The youth will get decent employment opportunities. Eight different priority economic sectors have been selected under this project, which include information communication, technology, health, hospitality, construction, textiles, garments, light engineering, agriculture farm machinery, surgical instruments, automobiles, auto-bike assembling and food processing sectors as well.

The minister said that a revolutionary project has been started to create centres of excellence for the promotion of skill development. Garment City is being built in Quaid-e-Azam Business Park Sheikhupura on an area of 630 acres. China's textile industry will move to Garment City and new factories will also be built over there.

Shafay said that Chinese companies will set up factories for manufacturing solar panels and electric vehicles in Punjab this year. He underscored that if all institutions work hard and diligently, there will be no need to borrow from the IMF. For the first time, solar studies have been initiated in Tevta’s facilities and the project to upgrade Tevta facilities has been initiated. Chairperson Chief Minister Task Force on Technical Education Adnan Afzal Chattha said that a major skill development project has been started with the support of Asian Development Bank. 37,000 children will benefit from this project. He said that under the Chief Ministerial Development Program, IT short courses are being provided free of cost to the youth.