Chairman National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (Navtec) Altaf Salim said on Wednesday that the commission will impart skill training to 625,000 personnel in different professions all over the country during the current fiscal year to maintain the level of sustained economic growth.
He expressed these views while addressing, as a chief guest, a conference on 'Skilling Pakistan' held under the auspices of Navtec stakeholders here at the University of Peshawar.
He emphasised that the national economy needed one million highly skilled manpower every year to revive economic stability of the country. Moreover, highlighting the significant measures of the government taken in this regard he said that the federal government had approved Rs 70 million for skill training and development programme during the current year, while Rs 170 million project was in the pipeline for the NWFP for the next fiscal year.
Altaf Salim, flanked by NWFP Secretary Industries, Zia-ur-Rehman, Navtec's Executive Director, Athar Tahir, President, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Haji Muhammad Asif, Regional Director Navtec, Dr Sultan Hanif Orakzai.
He added that in the past skill training programmes for young professionals were ignored, which resulted failure in achieving the economic revival's targets as the out put and quality of skilled manpower was not commensurate with its growing demand that emerged in various sectors of the economy.
"Previously only 300, 000 persons were being imparted skill training during a fiscal and this year 100,000 persons were added making the number 400, 000, while in the next year 250,000 more persons will be increased". Consent of the concerned people would be sought to make the skill-training programme more effective, he added.
He said the Navtec had adopted an innovative strategy for the training programmes and involved different public-private institutes to meet the desired goals. "Traditionally maximum funds are being spent on non-developmental activities, like construction of buildings, staff salaries, vehicles, fuels etc and as such the real objectives were left unattended", he added.
He said that they were working in close union with the universities, educational and training institutions and Pak-Army to meet the required skilled manpower. He said that major chunk of the funds was spent on the students and teachers as Rs 2,000 per month was paid to each student during training.
About the skills training to women, he suggested that mainstream skill training in the emerging fields like IT, telecom industry, paramedic etc should be imparted to women, which could help them in finding jobs. He said the government steps would be helpful in producing manpower to cope with the shortage of skilled professionals.
Earlier, Regional Director Navtec, Dr Sultan Hanif Orakzai in his briefing said that Navtec has started different projects in NWFP and Fata. Three projects have been launched in collaboration with the Directorate of Technical Education and Manpower Training amounting to Rs 230 million in women empowerment, short-term vocational training program in NWFP for males, establishment of TVET Centres in uncovered tehsils of NWFP. Meanwhile, a project has also been launched with Khyber Institute of Technical Education, Peshawar for youth from Fata costing Rs 80 million, he added.