ISLAMABAD: Youth Skill Development Programme (YSDP) has trained 75,000 youth both male and female during last three years in more than 100 demand-driven trades across Pakistan.
The scheme has been launched to impart training to unemployed youth of the country to acquire productive skills for gainful employment, Chairperson of Youth Programme Leila Khan said.
Talking to APP on Sunday, Leila Khan termed the scheme as remarkable initiative of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government for socio-economic development of youth in a bid to combat soaring unemployment.
She said National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), Ministry of Education and Trainings is executing the scheme in collaboration with Provincial TEVTAs and other 340 Government/Private Sector Skills Training Institutes which design the training as per modern needs.
Sharing three years statistics of the Scheme under PM’s Youth Programme, Leila Khan said Phase-I and II have been successfully completed under which 50,000 youth were provided training to enhance employment opportunities, alleviate poverty and provide a skilled workforce to large, medium and small-scale industry.
She said Phase-III of the programme has been divided into two batches and 25,000 youth have been successfully trained in the first batch. The training classes of another 25,000 trainees under Phase III (Batch-II) have commenced in demand is driven trades from January 2 this year.
The chairperson said 33 percent of total training slots are reserved for female trainees. Madaris graduates and disabled youth are also catered to under this Scheme.
Replying to a question, she said all young men/women aged up to 35 years with middle-level education are eligible for the training while on average fee support is Rs.5000 per month for six months. The stipend is Rs. 3000 per month for six months and Rs. 4000 per month per student for students from Federally Administered Tribal areas (FATA). In few trades, free Tool-Kits is also provided.
The chairperson said the budget allocation for Phase-III (2015-16) was Rs.2.63 billion, Phase-II (2014-15) was Rs.1.187 billion and Phase-I (2013-14) the budget allocation was Rs.800 million. The students selected for training as per NFC award quotas.
Leila Khan said Prime Minister’s Youth Programme includes six schemes – Youth Business Loan Scheme, Interest-Free Loan Scheme, Youth Skill Development Programme, (National) Programme for Provision of Laptops to Talented Students, Fee Reimbursement Scheme for Less Developed Areas, and Youth Training Scheme.