At a seminar titled ‘Involving Enterprises into Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)’ held on Friday, experts called for active involvement of training institutes as 1.5 million young Pakistanis were entering the labour market every year.
The seminar was jointly organized by National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) and TVET Reform Support Programme (funded by the European Union, Netherlands and Germany).
Executive Director NAVTTC Tariq Shafi Chak, in the opening statement, underlined the need for involving the industry into TVET system.
“Pakistan needs to equip her youth with demand-driven skills, which is only possible with the participation of the industry. I invite the private sector to come forward and become an integral part of the TVET delivery system,” he said.
Mehran Gul, an expert from United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) shared experiences of an internship programme that UNIDO had conducted in 2007. “The success of any internship programme lies on the active involvement of the industry in terms of sharing cost, contributing to the Terms of Reference of interns and the assessment of the interns,” she said.
Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA) Director Operations Syed Nazar Ali gave a presentation regarding the apprenticeship law which is being reviewed by the Sindh government.
He underlined the need for more active involvement of the industry to produce a skilled workforce through an effective apprenticeship system.
Skill Standards and Curricula Director General Shahid Ashraf Tarar highlighted the dual training system which is currently in practice in Germany and is considered as one of the major instruments of imparting demand-driven training to the workforce.
TVET Reform Support Programme Coordinator Dr Ute Hoffmann shared the details of Germany-Pakistan Training Initiative, under which German enterprises working in Pakistan offer a demand-driven training system for the workforce.
“Pakistani training providers such as AmanTech and IACT will cooperate directly with the German enterprises in 14 jointly training programmes to be implemented in the near future,” she added.
She proposed that a group working for a think tank, under the umbrella of NAVTTC would be the best guide to encourage the involvement of the industry in TVET development.