Minister for uniform certification, curriculum system

Islamabad: Unfortunately, the country has several systems of education with a huge disparity prevailing public and private institutes’ syllabus and curriculum. We have to be focused to develop some sort of single national certification and curriculum system for creating a level playing field for our children so that they are able to compete on same standards and platforms.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood during the launching ceremony of the first-ever National Skills Forum by the National Vocational & Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) in collaboration with Federation of Pakistani Chambers of Commerce & Industry as a platform to promote strategic partnerships between the industry, private and public sector organizations delivering technical education and vocational training across the country.

The minister said increased collaboration between public and private sector would drive the promotion of technical skills in the country. "I hope National Skills Forum becomes a platform from where lots of new ideas for skill development will be put forward,” he said.

The minister congratulated the Executive Director NAVTTC for bringing all the key stakeholders together at one platform and termed it important for TVET sector development of the country.

"We are committed to alleviating poverty and generate huge employment opportunities for our youth. For the purpose, the ministry was focusing on four important objectives. "Our top priority is to enroll around 22 million out-of-the-school children in primary schools," he said.

He said the government was seriously working on improving the quality of education. "We are also focusing on skill development and we will make sure that our youth acquire marketable skills so that they can enter the job market anywhere in the world and for that strong support from industry is need of the hour," he added.

He also called for educating and empowering women for a better Pakistan. Executive Director of NAVTTC Zulfiqar Ahmed Cheema said that the industry has a strong role to play in the policy formulation for skill development and bringing a paradigm shift in the delivery of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the country.

Explaining the major aims of NSF, he said “The National Skills Forum is established to address the disconnect between stakeholders from public and private sector active in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) through advocacy and awareness, provide strategic guidance regarding the implementation of the TVET programmes, discuss broad strategic and policy issues, oversee the progress on TVET sector reform in Pakistan”.

“TVET sector has the potential to change the destiny of our nation and I do not have any doubt if this sector becomes the top priority of our government, industry, media and key stakeholders then Pakistan will emerge as one of the biggest economies in the world,” he said.

Ambassadors of Norway Kjell-Gunar Ericsson, ambassador of Federal Republic of Germany Martin Kobler and ambassador of European Union in Pakistan Jean Francois Cautian appreciated the initiative and called it a milestone achieved for the partnership among public-private sector for promotion of TVET.

They expressed the hope that the present government will allot special funds for skill development and start new projects for the uplift of TVET sector of the country. They called for improving the quality of the training so that the trained skilled workers could easily secure jobs in various CPEC projects.

President of FPCCI Ghazanfar Bilour congratulated NAVTTC for establishing a national apex forum for promotion of public private partnership and envisioned hopes for the achievement of the objectives laid down at this platform.

The organisers said the National Skills Forum is intended to reflect the full range of inter-dependencies to foster cooperation, emphasise on the effective use of resources, and highlight the need of coordination in planning, to pursue the objectives of the National TVET Policy.

They said the NSF was meant to increase the collaboration between the FPCCI and NAVTTC to bring both the government and the industry at one platform for offering employable skills to the youth according to the needs of the industry.