Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated the e-Rozgaar training program at the Arfa Kareem Software Technology Park here on Tuesday.
Under this program, 40 e-Rozgaar centres have been set up in all 36 districts of the province where young adults will be given three-month training to enable them to earn a respectable living through online jobs.
Announcing the increase in the e-Rozgaar centres, the chief minister said that he believes that 40 centres are very insufficient and That 40 lakh centres needed to be set up so that more and more students could be financially empowered.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the e-Rozgaar program and the first freelancing convention, the chief minister said that a large portion of the population consisted of the young, and called them the country’s assets, adding that the destination of the country cannot be changed without the economic empowerment of the youth.
He said that the government has started various programs for the development and the economic empowerment of the youth. Young boys and girls are playing the vital role in the development of the country after receiving IT education and sharing the burden of their families, he said.
To achieve this objective, the government is responsible for providing a suitable environment and necessary investments and the Punjab government is taking exemplary measures in this regard, he elaborated, adding that the e-Rozgaar program and the Khadam-e-Punjab Self-Employment Program are parts of this vision.
The chief minister said that the Information Technology University Vice Chancellor Dr Umer Saif laid the foundation of the e-Rozgaar program about three years ago and thousands of the youth were working respectable jobs after being trained from these centres. He said congratulated Dr Umer Saif and his team, saying that he believes this program is the need of the hour and that it would help Pakistan move forward.
He said that the Punjab government had laid the foundation of the Rs 2 billion Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) in 2008 which had now increased to Rs 20 billion and hundreds of thousands of students were being educated through the financial aid provided by the program.
Shehbaz Sharif said that thousands of students had become doctors and engineers after being educated in foreign institutions after being financed by the scholarship. In the same way, thousands of students have received technical training through the Skill Development Program. He said that a system of monitoring should be introduced to know whether these students were getting jobs or not. He said that this challenge was being met by Dr Umer Saif as well.
Provincial Ministers Raza Ali Gillani and Jehangir Khanzada also addressed the ceremony and highlighted the importance of e-Rozgaar program. At the end of the ceremony, Dr. Umer Saif presented a shield to the chief minister. Provincial ministers, parliamentarians, VCs, IT experts and students were also present at the ceremony.