Punjab to increase capacity of training institutes

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Mansoor Ahmad
LAHORE: Encouraged by the uptake of workforce trained in demand-driven skills by the industry, the Punjab government would increase the capacity of its skill training institutes from current 250,000 students a year to 475,000 in the next fiscal.

The government is providing skill training through two separate institutions, the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) and Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC). Training courses are designed in consultation with the local industry and in accordance with their demand.

The students that pass out these training courses mostly are absorbed in the industries. “Job opportunities for skilled workers continue to increase even today when industrial production is on decline,” said Chairman TEVTA Mohsin Syed.

He said TEVTA produced 225,000 skilled workers this fiscal. Most of them got jobs during their on-job training in different industries. “In fact, industries are our partners in skill training.”

He said the training courses are conducted according to the demand in the industries. He said gap between the supply and demand of skills still exists and Punjab would have to increase its skill training capacity by at least 100 per cent in next three years.

“The industry has now realized that on job training to produce skill workers does not produce desired result as it requires professional trainers,” said Yusuf Kamal chairman Punjab Vocational Training Council.

He said recently the PVTC signed an agreement with a Sialkot-based leather garment stitching unit under which the professional trainers from PVTC would train 120 workers in 12 months on leather garment stitching machines. He said the training would be conducted at the manufacturing facility of the exporter that would also provide the raw material for four courses of three months in one year in which 30 students would be trained by the professional trainers of PVTC in each course.

He said PVTC has persuaded NEVTEC to bear the tuition fee of Rs1,800 per months for each student and the exporting unit has been persuaded to provide Rs2,000 stipend to each student. He said the students would be selected on merit by PVTC from poor deserving families. He said an exporter has also guaranteed employment to all those that pass out this course. This, he added, shows that demand for certain skills is still high in Punjab.

Mohsin said in next fiscal year the TEVTA plans to train 100,000 farmers in farming skills.

He said actual potential of agriculture could only be achieved if the farmers adopt latest farming techniques to handle modern farming equipment. He said real potential of agriculture could only be achieved if the farmers know the modern agricultural techniques. He said the master trainers in farming are currently undergoing rigorous training. He said TEVTA presently has 15,000 trainers in its faculty that serve in its different institutes.

He said more trainers are being employed. He said besides establishing model farms the TEVTA would provide training to the farmers in different skills at their door step. Pakistan yearly needs 1.2 skilled workers annually while the country hardly produces half the quantity most of them in Punjab. Punjab is still not self-sufficient in skill workforce and need to double its skilled human resource output to catch up with the industrial demand. Experts point out that value added manufacturing and agriculture production could only be possible through skilled workforce only.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=177213