The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (KP-TEVTA) has introduced a new training scheme to produce technicians for micro hydro power (MHP) plants, as a step to exploit the natural resource of gushing rivers in Swat by producing cheap electricity as well as equipping the youth with employable skills.
The programme has been started on competency based training format at 04 levels covering skill manpower requirement from helpers to designer of the MHP plant. Currently, students are enrolled for level I training and on successful implementation of the programme the same will be replicated in other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where potential for MHP exists. .
This new training programme is supported by the equipment TVET Reform Support Programme which is funded by the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Federal Republic of Germany and the Royal Norwegian Embassy. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) implements this Programme in close collaboration with National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) and provincial TEVTAs.
The special assistant to Chief Minister for technical education and Chairman KP TEVTA Arshad Umerzai while highlighting the importance of this specific training course said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is blessed with natural resource of water, which can alone produce almost 40,000MW hydel power. He said with the introduction of this new training programme, the local young people will be able to secure jobs, while remaining in their own areas. It will also help the country find solutions to energy crisis through the alternative sources of renewable energy, he opined.
The KP government has plans to establish over 600 MHP plants, each with a capacity between 50 and 150kw at different locations as a step to ease the shortage of electricity in rural and mountainous areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). However, each of the power plant require sound operation and maintenance, otherwise efficiency drops already after some years and reduces the life span of the plants drastically, which-unfortunately-is currently the case due to a lack of trained MHP technicians.
It is estimated that in KP over the next year a total of approximately 4,000 MHP technicians must be trained to meet the demand of the labour market. The course which started last week seen an overwhelming response as 67 candidates applied for the course out of which 20 have been selected for the course with which indicates the level of interest of local community in MHP skill training. A prototype MHP plant has been imported from Indonesia for providing job specific training to the trainees and moreover 4 teachers have been given extensive training on the imported plant in Indonesia with support of TVET Reform Support Programme.
Comments
Comments are closed.