Industrialists, experts and government functionaries on Tuesday underlined the importance of technical and vocational education training (TVET), saying the rampant unemployment and poverty in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa can be reduced by equipping the growing young population with employable skills.
This was the crux of a one-day seminar entitled-TVET Reform-A need of the hour-organized by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education & Vocational Training Agency (KP-TEVTA) here on Tuesday. The seminar was supported by the TVET Reform Support Programme, which is funded by the European Union, the governments of Netherlands, Germany and Norway and being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) and TEVTAs across Pakistan.
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak was the chief guest on the occasion, while besides a large number of participants from different walks of life; Chairman KP-TEVTA Nauman Wazir, Secretary Industries Sajid Khan Jadoon and Programme Director Education GIZ Pakistan Dr Julie Reviere were also present.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that the incumbent provincial government is committed to bring drastic changes in every sector including TVET. For this purpose, he said, the government has set up the KP-TEVTA, which is led-by the private sector because without the involvement of industry demand-driven workforce cannot be produced.
He further said the provincial government making efforts to make TEVTA effectively operational as an autonomous body and training organisations as the Directorate General of Technical Education and Manpower Training (DGTE& MT) has been brought under the umbrella of TEVTA. He expressed the hope that the TVET system would help the provincial government in creating a TVET system, which is relevant to market demand as well as every young boy and girl have access to the TVET so that they can earn decent livelihood.
Chairman KP-TEVTA Nauman Wazir in his opening remarks highlighted the efforts made for making the TVET delivery in line with the market demands. He said after the setting up of the KP-TEVTA the budget for technical education in KP has been increased from Rs 15 million to Rs 970 million only for training and material, while the overall budget for the sector has risen from Rs 3.8 billion to Rs 8 billion, which shows that the current government attaches high priority to the TVET.
Establishment of Institute Management Committees in all 71 institutes, hiring of Highly Skilled Instructors (HSI) to impart practical training, permission to perform as service providers with 80% of the income generated from such commercial activity to be distributed amongst the students/teachers. Similarly, steps have been taken to create strong linkages with the industry so that the trainees are equipped with employable skills, he opined. Programme Director Education GIZ Pakistan Dr Julie Reviere and a number of other speakers also spoke on the occasion and highlighted the importance of TVET and its reform.