NTB to be transformed with Chinese assistance

Islamabad

The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission's Board of Management approved three development projects under which the National Training Bureau (NTB) with the assistance of Chinese government will be transformed into a modern vocational and technical institute like international institutes.

Also, it decided that 1,000 men and women would be trained in 17 modern skills with the assistance of Italy under Skill Development Council of Youth of KP and FATA through donor’s special initiative, while with the help of Korea, four most demanded courses will be conducted at SDC, Merabagwal.

These decisions were made during the 16th meeting of the board here at the NAVTTC Headquarters. Chairman of Nestle Pakistan Waqar Ahmad chaired the event, where representatives of all provincial TEVTAs, authorities of various organizations and many renowned industrialists were in attendance.

The members praised NAVTTC for publishing Guide booklets for the trainers and skilled youth, saying it would ensure work ethics, punctuality, norms, values amongst the youth and will be helpful in promoting positive image of Pakistan before the world.

They appreciated Executive Director of NAVTTC Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema for organizing a mega International TVET Conference and considered it as a huge success in not only enhancing collaboration with the developed world but also promoting the positive image of Pakistan.

Waqar Ahmad said that skilled manpower is the key to social and economic development of the country and appreciated the reform measures taken by NAVTTC and extended their full support in this regard. Owner of Sitara Group, Mian M. Idrees said that International TVET Conference is a huge success in making TVET sector more vibrant. Ali Amin of Wilson Group stressed upon the need of engaging media in creating awareness among the public regarding the activities of NAVTTC.

On this occasion, Executive Director Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema told members that NAVTTC has shifted towards demand driven training and is imparting training in marketable skills. He told the members that NAVTTC has introduced a new skill assessment system at par with the international standards through which ninety percent of exam would be based on practical test and the rest on interview. Out of the three assessors, two would be industrial experts.

Moreover, the NAVTTC’s certificate would be the key to employment for our trained at both the domestic and international market. He further added that the NAVTTC is currently conducting skill competitions throughout the country and Rs75,000, Rs50,000 and Rs30,000 will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd position holder respectively.

Senior Additional Secretary Omar Hamid praised the initiatives of NAVTTC for increasing employability of the youth and expressed the hope that this practice will continue in the future as well.

Secretary Industries of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Farah Hamid Khan said that skilled manpower is the key to socio-economic development of the country. In this session, it was unanimously decided that the number of trainees will be doubled and under Prime Minister’s Youth Skill Development Phase-IV, 100,000 young boys and girls will be trained in the most demand-driven trades.

The executive director also offered an active participation on public private partnership basis and encouraged the organizations to play their role efficiently in identifying marketable trades, skills, curricula development, and assessment of quality of training.