Youth uplift scheme on the cards

Islamabad : The government has focused its attention on bringing institutional change to achieve socioeconomic empowerment of youths.

For the purpose, it is working on the start of the National Youth Development Programme (NYDP) through an Act of Parliament.

This was stated by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on youth affairs Usman Dar during a meeting with a delegation of PILDAT’s young politicians fellowship programme, who called on him to discuss the scope of government initiatives for the socioeconomic development of youths.

Usman Dar briefed the visiting delegation on planned initiatives of the government including National Youth Development Framework (NYDF), an overarching vision document for youth development interventions in education, employment and engagement (3Es).

The PM special assistant said for the first time in the history the country, the National Youth Council was being established under the NYDF, patronised by the PM, it would be a youth advisory body comprising of outstanding young leaders who have earned laurels in their respective fields.

"In education sector, the government is about to launch Startup Pakistan Programme to create a national eco-system for the development of innovation driven entrepreneurs (IDEs).

"Youth across all universities and 300 accredited TVET institutes would be trained in seven emerging technologies through digital incubation initiative for sustainable national economic growth," he said.

Usman Dar said under Skills Development Programme, 150,000 youth, both male and female, would receive effective technical and vocational training in both high-tech and conventional demand-driven trades to ensure their maximum employability. He said for employment, the government was launching Kamyab Jawan Programme, an SME-lending facility to offer subsidized business loans to the young entrepreneurs for running their own businesses.