NVTEC urges Chinese government to set up technical institutions

National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NVTEC) has requested Chinese government to set up technical institutions at various points of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Speaking at a news conference Zulifqar Ahmed Cheema Executive Director of NVTEC said here on Sunday that Pakistanis will get training in technical institutions in different trades for CPEC projects. "We have identified and proposed sites for the technical institutions", he said and hoped that implementation on NVTEC proposal would start soon. "We (NVTEV) want Pakistanis to get employment opportunities in CPEC projects," he added.
Cheema said that skill workforce is being trained at great numbers by NVTEC to cater for the needs of CPEC projects as well as for industries, in response of a question, he said funds to train the people in different trades are provided by the federal government under Prime Minister's Skill development Programme.
He said during the first two years only 25,000 people were getting training from NVTEC and the number has increased to 50,000 in 2016. This year, he said one hundred thousands will be given training in different skills. Cheema said that NVTEC was trying to produce demand driven training especially to the youth in various trades including heavy machinery. As a result, people are getting jobs in abroad and in Pakistan.
Cheema said that NVTEC main focus is to train the youth, which constitutes 60 percent of the population and by doing so "we can turn them into an asset for the economy instead of burden. Coordination with industry is now established to ascertain their requirement and accordingly industry driven training is being provided to the youth. We are also building investment capacity of the trainers with the help of international institutions and sectoral committees are reviewing curriculum after every six months to improve in it as per requirement of the industry.
He said that in order to facilitate the industry, jobs placement centers have been established in different cities and data of workforce trained in different trades by the NVTEC will be shared with the industry. We have also started giving training to the people for domestic house keeping, he added.
Pakistan for the first time was made member of the World Skills, he said while adding that improvement in the Technical Vocational Education and training is now being acknowledged world over. Cheema further stated that a skill competition is being held today (Monday) at National Council of Arts (NCA) where winners of first three positions will be given cash prize. However, he was unable to provide data of the skilled people who after completing their training have been able to get employment.