In an efforts to meet the employability challenge young people face an increasingly competitive world, six British and Pakistani institutions signed Memorandums of Understandings (MoUs) under the British Councils' 'Skills for Employability' project.
Partnerships have been made in four priority sectors, Bradford, College is linked with Hazara University to work in the 'Hospitality and Tourism sector, Newcastle College and Government College of Technology (GCT) Rasul have joined hands to focus on Construction. Hastings College of Arts and Technology has partnered with GCT Nowshehra to work together in the engineering sector. City College and Hove along with GCT Multan will be putting their efforts in engineering as well.
Liandrillo College and Pakistan Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, Karachi will be concentrating on 'Hospitality and Tourism while Bradford College and Government Polytechnic institute for Women, Karachi are now twinned in Textile and Fashion. Two more partnerships between Pakistan institutes of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and UK institutions will follow in the coming weeks.
These institutions will work together to establish industry driven curriculum models in key sectors of the economy that will help people from across Central and South Asia develop technical and generic skills that present days' employers demand. The focus of these six institutional partnerships is in four sectors, construction, engineering, hospitality, tourism, textile and fashion.
The 'Skills for Employability' project aims at meeting the aspirations of young people preparing for life and work by providing transferable skills for employability. The National Vocational and Technical Education Commission of Pakistan (Navtec) is a key partner in skills and employability.
Last year, British Council Pakistan and Navtec signed an MoU at the Prime Ministers' Secretariat prior to initiating institutional partnerships as the first step towards collaborative work to support national reforms in technical and vocational education.

The UK delegation comprising representatives from UK institutes, worked closely with their counterparts from the Pakistani partner institutes in developing joint work plans, studying the Pakistan TVET structure and visiting institutions. The signing of these MoUs marks the beginning of relationship, that can create closer links between industry and education by working in partnership for positive social change in ways that are genuinely mutual.
British Council connects people worldwide with learning opportunities and creative ideas from the UK to build lasting relationships around the world. The government of Pakistan realising the role of skilled and technically educated manpower for development of overall national economy established the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (Navtec).
The Commission is mandated to facilitate, regulate and provide policy direction for technical education and vocational training to meet national and international demand for skilled manpower. The Commission will review, devise policy and evolve strategy moreover, training programmes will be prepared relating to human resource development with focus on technical and vocational education and training (TVET).