LAHORE: The Punjab Vocational Training Institute (PVTI) is unable to fully cater to the needs of a large number of unskilled youth due to its insufficient budgetary allocation, media reports have informed.
A lack of training programmes in line with future needs, especially after the completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is a question mark on the utility of the institute.
The Punjab Zakat and Usher Department has been funding the training institute and has been giving good results by imparting technical skills to tens of thousands of youth at its 348 institutes across Punjab. However, due attention has not been given to tap the talent of youth.
Set up in 1998 by the Punjab Zakat and Usher Department, the institute is presently running 107 programmes in various sectors, including agriculture, industry and health.
In addition to Rs1,089 million provided by the Zakat and Usher Department, the Planning and Development Department is giving Rs1,810 million to it for managing affairs of 348 institutes.
Realising the future needs, in view of the limited budget, the PVTI has spread its framework across Punjab whereof remarkable changes in the core-root of financial and class structure is expected in near future.
Previously, PVTI was working in collaboration with GiZ, PSDF, Unicef, British Council, and other such donors to contribute to poverty alleviation. But, due to old-fashioned mechanism and inefficiency in the utilising of funds, some national and international donors have backed out.
In 2015, the Zakat and Usher Department launched some programmes under the Khadim-e-Aala Rozgar Scheme as a pilot project in six districts – Attock, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sahiwal, Sheikhupura and Lahore — under which pass-outs of the PVTI can get soft loans up to Rs200,000.
In 2016, 54 projects, mainly of vocational training at Afghan refugee camps, were initiated for domestic workers, rural community development, school IT labs etc.