The speakers of one day workshop on "Training, Needs Assessment" organised by the management of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Programme (BBSYDP) in collaboration with International Labour Organisation (ILO) today at local hotel have demanded for converting BBSYDP into permanent Commission for the development of human resources in the country.
The workshop was also participated by Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FPCCI) Karachi, Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce & Industries (HCCI), Kotri Association & Trade Industry and representatives from Mirpurkhas Chamber of Commerce & Industries. Apart from strong representation from private sector, Project Directors of various government departments imparting training under BBSYDP also participated.
Majyd Aziz Ex-President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industries addressing the inaugural session of workshop said that BBSYDP was the world recognised programme being financed by World Bank and other international donor agencies and because of its viability, other countries were considering adopting this strategy.
He said that since the programme was conceived under the visionary approach of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, therefore, it must be converted into Commission under the title of her name to avoid any chance of changing its title in future due to political reasons. He said that the production of skilled manpower was the need of industrialists as such we consider it our own organisation and announced that he will absorb the graduates of BBSYDP into his organisation and urged upon all the industrialists to follow him.
He feared that if BBSYDP is failed, no such Human Resource Development Programme to be conceived in future and it would be very dangerous for socio-economic point of view. The Provincial Co-ordinator BBSYDP Mr Karim Bakhsh Siddiqui in his key note address said that as many as 61,735 skilled youth have been trained by November 30, 2010 in more than 182 trades, particularly health services, education, textile, basic & advance information communication technology etc.
He said that launching of BBSYDP was the mega initiative of Government of Sindh to eliminate poverty and unemployment through human resources development. He said that this programme would help in generating self-employment as well. He said that Pakistan has very youthful population age structure.
The young population includes Matric/Intermediate qualification and looking for work, but unfortunately due to unavailability of proper counselling for career guidance and training, majority of above youths are unemployed and this situation in rural areas was in acute position.
Realising this socio-economic issue, the Sindh Government has launched a major initiative, titles BBSYDP in the province. He said that during its first phase 2008-2009 against the 50,000 target, the training of 51,404 was planned out of which 32,131 achieved their graduation and 27% of them have been absorbed in gainful jobs. Similarly in second phase, out of 50,000 to 75,000 targets, the training of 60,280 was planned from them 29,558 got their graduation by 30-11-2010, while training of others to be completed by 30-12-2010. Likewise third phase of the programme has been launched with target of 50,000 and enrolment of aspirants was in progress.
He said that since one phase of BBSYDP is completed and other was about to be completed, therefore the need of linkage in between organisation in private sector for their employment was very much essential to achieve the objectives. He said that Sindh Youth Employment Services (SYES) has been created as the portal of www.bbsydpsindh.gov.pk website of BBSYDP where the data of 96,000 youth qualified in different trades have been uploaded for the information of employers.