Chairman, National Vocational &Technical Education Commission (NAVTEC), Mumtaz Akhtar Kahloon has said the Punjab government should have spent money on providing technical education to youth instead of wasting billions of rupees on Danish Schools.
"We could produce hundreds of skilled labour by spending money on technical education," he said while talking to the media for the first time in Lahore after taking charge as Chairman NAVTEC, here on Friday.
Executive Director NAVTEC, Tariq Shafi Chak, Dr Rashid Mansoor, Regional Director NAVTEC, Director (Research), Ambreen Iftikhar and Deputy Director Ather Mansoor were present. Kahloon said the Punjab government should focus on technical education rather than wasting money on the projects like Sasti Rotti and Danish schools. Talking about NAVTEC, Kahloon said that NAVTEC has trained around one million people since NAVTEC was established in 2005. He said that they had trained 45000 young men and women in 2010.
He said that their role is to make curriculum, which is acceptable and according to international standard. They were working with internationally recognised technical institutes for making syllabus, he added.
He further said that NAVTEC is playing an important role for imparting quality technical education in the country especially in the far- flung areas of the country which include areas of Gilgit Baltistan and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa. He also said that they had also trained youth in the far- flung areas of Balochistan with the support of Army.
The chairman NAVTEC said that Rs 10,000 per month was spent on one person to impart technical education. The financial institutions should provide loans to the skilled youth without any mark up, he said adding that they were working on the project to give mark up free loans to the skilled youth with the support of Akuwat. "We will give Rs 20,000 to the skilled youth, which would be interest free," he added. Kahloon said that they had a lot of potential of exporting skilled labour to developed countries for example they were working on the syllabus for paramedics with the support of European Union.
In the same way NAVTEC is focusing on industry-academia linkage and NAVTEC is working on the technical programme with the support of the garment industry and the students, after completing the programme they will earn Rs 7000 to Rs 20,000.
The chairman NAVTEC said that Pakistan Readymade Garments Association has already been running Pakistan Readymade Garments Technical Institute (PRGTTI) in Karachi and Lahore. He also said that NAVTEC would take it as model project for ready made garment industry.
He said that technical institutes should be established in the regions according to the requirements of the industry of that area. President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani were giving especial attention to technical education therefore and they had promised him to provide funds for technical education, he said.
He also said that the prime minister had promised him that he would get funds from Benazir Income Support Programme and Workers Welfare Fund. He said that Pakistan was passing through a difficult time due to recession and war on terror and under the circumstance, only technical education could provide jobs to youth. Around 65 percent of Pakistan's population consist of people between 15-30 years.