2m youths to be made skillful in three years: Shahbaz

LAHORE
Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has said the Punjab government has set the target of making two million youths skillful in the next three years. He said that a major part of the population of Pakistan comprised youth and the destiny of the country and the nation could be changed by empowering youth.
He said the provision of resources for empowering youth was an investment for the future of the country. The chief minister said that resources of billions of rupees had been provided earlier for this purpose and he would do so in the future as well. He said the institutions concerned would have to play an active role in paying the attention to quality skills’ development in the Punjab and they would have to give results.
He said the experiences and expertise of the city and guilds with regard to quality skills’ development and capacity-building of vocational training institutes in the Punjab would be exploited. Shahbaz Sharif directed the constitution of a steering committee for preparing the future roadmap regarding the quality skill development with the city and guilds and added that the committee would submit its final recommendations within next few days.
He expressed these views while talking to a delegation led by Regional Director City and Guilds for South Asia Mufti Hashim on Wednesday. Matters relating to the preparation of quality skilled manpower and its demand were discussed during the meeting.
Shahbaz Sharif said the promotion of technical education was need of the hour for rapid development of the country. He said the future of the country was linked with technical education that was why the Punjab government was paying special attention to the skills’ development. He said that preparing quality skilled force according to the local and foreign requirements was need of the hour and vocational training institutions would have to do something for the uplift of the skills’ development.
The chief minister said the Punjab government had made thousands of youth skillful through Skill Development Fund. He said the scope of skills’ development programme started in four districts of the Punjab had been extended to various districts. He said that a third party audit system had also been introduced for skills’ development. He said that equipping the youth with quality education was essential for taking Pakistan forward. He said there was a need of harmonising Tevta, PVTC and Skills’ Development Company with modern demands. Shahbaz Sharif directed that all the institutions concerned should pay attention to the preparation of skilled manpower according to the local and foreign market needs.
He said that making the syllabus of vocational training institutions according to the needs and modern demands of the market was essential. He said the role of teachers regarding the promotion of quality skills’ development was of great importance besides training of the teachers keeping them abreast with the modern knowledge was also vital.
The chief minister said that time had already been wasted and now no one would be allowed to waste time further. He said the departments concerned would have to take immediate steps towards the right direction. He said the hard-work would have to be done for ensuring achievement of the future targets regarding the skills’ development. He said that all the vocational training institutions would have to march forward effectively by leaving the traditional methods and the syllabus of the vocational training institutions would have to be modernised.
Executive Director Skills International and representative of City and Guilds Pakistan Danesh Abhyi Wickarma, Country Manager Asad Warraich and other officials were also present during the meeting. Provincial Ministers Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, Chaudhry Muhammad Shafique, Dr. Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, chief secretary, chairman planning and development, secretaries concerned, Chairman TEVTA, Chairman PVTC and authorities concerned were also present.