New Apprenticeship Law 2020 to be tabled in PA's upcoming session: Tevta chief

Chairperson Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority Punjab Ali Salman Siddique said that new Apprenticeship Law 2020 will be presented in the coming session of the Punjab Assembly.

While talking to Business Recorder Salaam Alaikum TEVTA said that after the passage of the law industry will hire a student registered with TEVTA. The new law will replace old Apprenticeship Act 1962. Ali said that TEVTA vision 2023 is designed in such a way that we will provide 1 million jobs to the skilled youth of Punjab according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He also said currently around 200,000 students enrolled every year in TEVTA programs across Punjab. He said we will increase the enrollment by 20 percent every year.

He further said that he wants to see TEVTA as one of the biggest skill provider in South Asia. "In our endeavor to transform the skill land scape of the Punjab, we have changed our vision from being a simple skill provider to one creating employment opportunities through inspiring demand driven skills of the highest possible quality," Ali said.

He also said that new TEVTA management in its first 100 days has collaborated with its relevant stakeholders, including NAVTTC, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and TVET sector support program funded by European Union and the Norwegian and German governments to identify the critical gaps in its existing TVET system and initiated several interventions in just 100 days to bring a paradigm shift from its conventional system to a Modern Skill Ecosystem.

For the first time in the history of TEVTA Ali said that a Career Development Division has been established which will be headed by top professionals of their fields. The division will have a strong liaison with the career counseling and job placement centers at TEVTA institutes across the Punjab to facilitate out students in connecting with the local and international industry for job placement.

For our international wing, separate desks will be set up with the support of Overseas Pakistan Commission and the Foreign Office. The data of the skilled labor will be shared with international companies who had the data of worldwide jobs. The international wing will collaborate with them for placement of our students globally.

Chairperson TEVTA said that before that authority doesn't have any credible data of about our 2 million graduates which were passed out in last 20 years regarding whether they were placed on jobs or not, on which salary they are being employed or they became self employed.

He said that when he joined TEVTA in August 2019, his focus was on quality not quantity. He also said that we introduced Competency Based Training and Assessment System in our institutes with the support of World Bank. It is an internationally accredited system implemented in more than 130 countries. This system focuses on building competencies, imparting quality training and assessing the levels of competency and training for productive economic use.

He further said that all TEVTA courses should be renewed as per CBTA standards. Previously the courses had theory and practical bases in which an individual student was not able to learn and train but in this system every student must have to do everything on his own. The student has to pass individually. This enhanced the quality standards. "We are updating labs and machinery in 83 institutes with the support of GIZ and World Bank. Till now 36 courses have been shifted to CBTA and the remaining are under process. It's difficult to buy the up to dated machinery so we are in liaison with international agencies and donors and government to provide the required funding," chairperson said.

He also said for theory part we are introducing smart classrooms and simulations where the students will be exposes to modern technology with multimedia and computers, in the class rooms. TEVT in collaboration with Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) are working for simulations of different courses and class rooms. For example a student goes in the class room of electrical course, there is a black board and he didn't have proper set of books. He will learn all about a machine through ready made simulations.

Talking about the financial constraints chairperson TEVTA Ali Salman said that we need Rs 50 billion to upgrade 403 institutes, so we can't do it at once keeping in mind the economic situation of the country. Therefore we identified different economic zones in the province.

TEVTA in collaboration with Asian Development Bank will upgrade 8 Centre of Excellence with the funding's of 100 million dollar. These centers will support in areas of Food Preservation ad processing, construction IT, Automation, technology and other sectors. Four centers are being set up with the assistance of National University of Technology (NUTECH).

He also told that these centers will be established in already constructed buildings as we had 16 empty state of the art buildings. So we rather than spending money on infrastructure development we will spend money on human development. We are also working for international accreditation for all these courses so our students will be able to go abroad. TEVTA, he said is working with Planning and Development Department Punjab for skill mapping so that we know the demand of industry in different cities.

Ali said when he took charge he observed that courses were not market driven and were initiated without taking industry on board.

Chairperson TEVTA told that for the first time they had started the Entrepreneurship programs in collaboration with Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

He said as a pilot project, National incubation center of LUMS is mentoring the first batch of 30 TEVTA students equipping them with business skills to start their own startups.

"We are collaborating with Microfinance Bank and government entities to provide funding for these initiatives. Our goal is to develop our own incubation center to institutionalize entrepreneurship program for our students." He said. He said that TEVTA had also been in collaboration with top private institutions like LUMS, FCC, University of Lahore and UMT. He also shared that a young Malaysian sunny Ali has offered to designee TEVTA courses free of cost. "We believe that new reforms and interventions under our vision TEVTA 2023 will not only enhance the quality standards of the students but also enable them to secure economic opportunities at local and international level through our New Skill Ecosystem," chairperson concluded.