Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI), Technical Education & Vocational Training (TEVT) System, Board of Technical Education and all polytechnic institutes & vocational training institutes on Thursday agreed on establishment of close linkage between industries, technical education institutes, public-private partnership, teaching of market oriented and specified sector courses in the technical and vocational training institutions.
The organisations also stressed on promotion of technical education particularly inclusion of rural women in untraditional projects. These measures were taken in a dialogue on public-private partnership in TEVT Institutions-Industry here at Sarhad Chamber. President, SCCI, Liaquat Ahmad Khan presided the function.
The dialogue was attended by Director Technical Education NWFP, Mohammad Tariq Awan, Project Director, The Construction of TEVT, Engineer Muneebullah Khattak, member executive SCCI, Shahid Munir, principals of polytechnic and vocational training institutes and teachers from different parts of the province.
In his inaugural speech, president, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) Liaquat Ahmad Khan stressed for the promotion of technical and vocational education in the country in general and in NWFP in particular and called for introduction of market oriented courses in technical and vocational educational institutions of the province.
He said due to the lack of skilled labourers the local industries use to import technical experts from other parts of the country resulting in increase of the cost of production. He stressed for preparation of skilled manpower according to the requirements of marble & granite, precious & semi-precious stones, furniture and other small and medium size-manufacturing units in the province.
He demanded the introduction of programmes to increase the value of agricultural products, such as food preservation and food processing technology in the province. "The technical centers should help promote cultural heritage, increase the value of natural resources and generate income for communities."
The SCCI chief also called for the facilitation of technical graduates in access to micro credit enabling them to start small businesses and generate income and jobs. These measures, he said would also help reduce poverty in the country. He said that the requirement of our country is to produce skilled workers especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that use indigenous natural resources.
Addressing on the occasion, Haji Mohammad Asif said that the industries in NWFP facing difficulties in finding skilled labourers and attributed deficiency in availability of skilled manpower a big hurdle in the industrial backwardness of the province. He stressed for filling the gap between industries and technical teaching institutes of the province.