Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (Tusdec) entered into a contract worth 3.8 million Euros with the European Union to impart training to 12,000 men and women from the vulnerable communities of KP and Fata region. Tusdec Chief Executive Officer Basit Maqsood Abbasi revealed this while talking to Business Recorder.
Tusdec would be the implementing organisation for the four years programme seeking a sustainable TVET (Technical Vocational education and Training) sector reform in the tribal regions of KP and Fata, he said. He further said Tusdec had so far trained some 18,000 peoples since its beginning from various sectors which included engineering, construction, hospitality, travelling, gem and jeweller, marble, hardware and many others.
The management of the company has now join hands with different funding agencies to keep upgrading the technical skills of people of different sectors after government stopped the funds for the most prestigious but a hidden company. "The company has to achieve for what it was made, no matter from where we receive funding we will continue to provide technology up gradation and skill development to different entrepreneurs and their staff," he added.
Presently 315,000 institutes working in the formal TVET sector, providing technical skills to less than six percent of young people and only 2.3 percent have received on the job trainings. This means that the competence level of the local workforce is too low to deliver adequately to the enterprise productivity and competitiveness, he maintained.
So far we have established the projects costing four billion rupees. These include Karachi Tool Dye and Molt Centre in Karachi, and one in Gujranwala. Ceramic development and training complex in Gujranwala, National institute of design and analysis in five mega cities from which some 10,000 engineers had been upgraded, he said.
The company also established four skill development centres in earthquake-hit areas like Batgram and Mansehra where hospitality and tourism courses were offered. "I am happy to announce that out of 7,000 people trained in these areas some seventy percent have preferred to start their own business in tourism and hospitality industry," he added.
Abbasi further said that Tusdec had also joined hands with GIZ, Pakistan to foster the renewable energy sector in the country. The programme is being implemented under the implications of FIT (Funds for Innovative Training), Green Skills initiative. The project is aimed at skill force development in various disciplines of Solar Technologies in Pakistan.
Tusdec will enrol 125 candidates in the breakdown of five batches to be trained in various areas of photovoltaic and Solar Water Heating Systems. The overall programme duration is stretched over one year where each course will be extended for a span of three months. State-of-the-art facilities of NIDA Lahore centre will be utilised to administer the theoretical as well as practical trainings sessions, while on-site demonstrations will be organised specifically in the disciplines of Water Pumping and Solar Dryer where proficient master trainers will deliver the lectures, employing the originally deployed infrastructure, he maintained.
Abbasi said that Tusdec had conducted an acute baseline analysis comprised rigorous focus groups with major enterprises (Suppliers, Manufacturers and Assemblers) of solar power equipment and solar heating systems that had divulged huge dearth of trained manpower in the industry. Experts' panel has contrived market-oriented and internationally accredited training curricula which will enable the trainees to serve productively in the approaching industry.
Tusdec further aims at nurturing the diverse areas of renewable energy sector in Pakistan with the provision of immensely adroit and skilled manpower. Pakistan is experiencing approx 12 percent increase in its energy consumption with each passing year. The prevalent situation suggests a dire need of infrastructure investment as well as manpower cultivation in various alternate energy sources to effectively impede the resultant economic revolt, he said.
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