The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has arranged a training programme for trainers to implement a self-employment scheme designed in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
SMEDA's Director MA Jabbar Khan while speaking at the inaugural ceremony said that more than 31 percent of the population of Pakistan consisted of youth, a large portion up to 32 percent of which is uneducated with little or no technical vocational skills, making this segment of society vulnerable to being drawn to violence and extremism.
He termed the UNDP Youth Employment Project as a positive response to this challenge.
It is a three-year project supported by US Agency for International Development (USAID), he said, adding that the project aims to train 13,360 young boys and girls from targeted areas for self-employment by December 2017. He hoped that the project would enable unemployed youth with limited opportunities to transform their ideas into small business projects.
SMEDA's Provincial Chief Sindh Mukesh Kumar said that SMEDA would not only provide business training but would also provide hand holding support to youth. "The SMEDA is committed to promoting youth entrepreneurship in Pakistan and has successfully implemented many youth entrepreneurship programmes in Pakistan. The SMEDA would also create market linkages and access to micro credit, he said.
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