IT Industry Academia Bridge Program: SACM reviews pilot skill development course at SU campus

HYDERABAD: Special Assistant to Chief Minister Sindh on Information Science and Technology Tanzila Umi Habiba along with her 6-member delegation reached the University of Sindh to review the pilot skill development training course initiated under the IT Industry Academia Bridge Program on the campus.

Dr. Zeeshan Bhatti of the University of Sindh gave a briefing to the Provincial Advisor and her team at the Registrar’s office regarding the completion of the 16-day training of the first ever batch of students under the IT Industry Academia Bridge Program. He also presented some important suggestions related to the success of the program in the future, which were appreciated by the experts’ team of the Sindh government.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Sindh University Laar Campus Badin Prof. Dr. Khalilur Rehman Khoumbhati, Registrar Dr Ghulam Muhammad Bhutto, AHS Bukhari Post Graduate Center of Information and Communication Technology and others were also present in the briefing.

Speaking on the occasion, Provincial Adviser Tanzila Umi Habiba said that the Chief Minister of Sindh had given her the good news a day ago regarding the grant of approval of Sindh University campus in Matli, where the admissions will initially be offered in three significant disciplines like English, IT and LLB (Hons). She said that a pilot skill development course was initially started at the University of Sindh to give IT industry related training to the youth so that more lessons could be learned from it and the training course could be improved accordingly.

She said that the purpose of the IT Industry Academia Bridge program was to bridge the gap between universities and industries and provide trained youth to the private organizations, which will benefit the industrial institutions on the one hand and provide jobs to the youth of Sindh on the other hand. “This will help reduce poverty in the province”, she said and added that the provincial government did not have enough jobs to provide employment to every youth, for which the IT Academia Bridge program had been launched. This she said will bring great benefit in the future.

The Chief Minister’s special assistant further said that youth could get the best jobs in industrial establishments by getting relevant training.

“The prevailing era is the era of acquiring technical skills and the ability can only be acquired by the youth, who will have the desire to learn something and get the best employment in the private sector in the days to come”, she said.

She said that those Universities of Sindh will be included in the IT Industry Academia Bridge Program in future, which would be ready for the skill development of their students, adding the ministry could not forcefully run such technical training programs anywhere in the province.

She said that the courses started under the pilot project in some institutions of higher learning including that of SU helped in understanding the problems persisted with the students, while in the future, the programs will be made more effective and better.

She announced that the unprivileged youth coming from far-flung areas of the province for the training course, will be provided some financial support in form of stipend.

She said that the solution to the prevailing huge inflation was to bring more and more young people to the IT sector and to conduct training courses in the field of information science and technology by including the matriculation and intermediate passed youths as well.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023