France to train: TVET master trainers in collaboration with NAVTTC

Islamabad : The French government has agreed to train technical and vocational training master trainers in the country with the collaboration of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC).

The agreement comes as French ambassador Dr. Marc Barety visited the NAVTTC headquarters and met commission Chairman Syed Javed Hassan to explore areas of collaboration between France and Pakistan in technical and vocational education and training.

NAVTTC Executive Director Dr. Nasir Khan and Cooperation Attache’ of France Dr. Pierrick Le Jeune were also present. The NAVTTC chairman briefed the ambassador about the commission’s role as the apex TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) body and discussed major areas of intervention between both sides, including training of master trainers, increasing capacity of Pakistani TVET system, starting joint degree programmes, improving quality of training and producing skilled labor workforce to meet the international job requirements etc.

The chairman said skill development was critically important to provide employment opportunities to the youths and increase foreign remittances.

"Right now, our capacity is limited to skilling approximately 400,000 people in the formal sector but that needs to be increased considerably and to achieve our target we are focusing on better utilisation of the existing resources, starting double shifts of training, introducing online TVET training system and including Madraris and universities for imparting technical and vocational education," he said.

The French ambassador appreciated the Pakistani government’s priorities for skilling youth for economic development and termed TVET as absolutely vital for the future of the country.

Both sides agreed to explore possibilities for joint degree programmes in vocational training in the near future.

As the first step, renowned professors from the Institute of Technology, France will visit Pakistan during the next month where various propositions to train master trainers would be discussed in detail.

Moreover, Pakistani TVET trainers will be invited to visit best TVET institutes of France so that they could study and learn from their best practices.

Dr. Nasir highlighted the robust TVET system of France and proposed that the two countries should cooperate to benefit from the advancements of France in the field of TVET.

Pakistani vocational institutes should be accredited with France’s best TVET institutes which would not only enhance the capacity of our existing institutes but also increase international recognition of our qualifications, he said. Both sides agreed to explore further areas of collaboration especially in modern technological advancements including cyber security, robotics, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, etc.