‘Modern apprenticeships in Pakistan’ lunched

Islamabad : Minister for federal education and professional training Shafqat Mahmood on Tuesday regretted that around 2.5 million people entered the local job market every year but majority of them lacked basic skills to meet the demands of the industry.

“Our biggest challenge is to ensure that every person entering the job market is equipped with modern skills with a certain amount of hands-on work experience to cater to the needs of employers’ requirements and for that we need to link up our education system with the needs of the job market,” he told the launching ceremony of ‘Modern Apprenticeships in Pakistan’ here.

The event was organised by the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) in collaboration with the British Council Pakistan.

The minister said informal apprenticeships had been prevalent in the country for decades as the oldest and most effective method of producing skilled workforce but unfortunately, skill development lacked attention and involvement of key stakeholders including employers, the business community, training providers and institutes. He appreciated the efforts of the NAVTTC for launching the new apprenticeship model realising the need of making apprenticeship system more responsive to the changing market needs and bringing industry on board.

The minister said he was hopeful that the new apprenticeship model would be successfully adopted and implemented in all provinces and would provide an excellent opportunity to make the young population a vehicle of socio-economic growth and convert Pakistan into an industrial prosperous country.

“There are three things that I see the NAVTTC to be doing in future; firstly I believe this will be an organization to set standards for all kind of skills, secondly it will ensure a formal certification system recognized locally and internationally, and finally it will create enhanced public-private partnerships and devise practical plans for skill development for the decades ahead,” he said.

The minister said he was happy to announce that Pakistan’s first National Skill University would be established in Islamabad in the next few months, where master trainers would be trained to train youths in the most demanded trades across the country.