Islamabad: 25 March: Mr. Muhammad Usman Dar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs called on Mr. Shafqat Mahmood, Federal Minister for Federal Education & Professional Training, in order to discuss the need of imparting productive skills and developing entrepreneurship culture in the youth through Skills Development and Startup Pakistan initiatives.
Under Skills Development project, 150,000 prospective trainees are planned to receive technical and vocational training in demand driven trades over a period of next 02 years. 50% of these trainings would focus on high–end labor sectors, whereas remaining 50% would target conventional vocational trainings in less privileged areas like Balochistan and FATA, ensuring about 75% employability of the trained youth.
Under Startup Pakistan initiative, 01 million youth across all universities and 300 accredited TVET institutes would be targeted to create a national eco-system for entrepreneurship incubation for establishing self-sustaining venture start-ups as a driving engine for the national economy.
Besides this, Mr. Usman Dar also briefed Mr. Shafqat Mahmood on about-to-be launched initiatives of Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, namely National Youth Employment Exchange and a mobile application the skilled workers. These apps would ensure better employability of the trained workforce by connecting them with the employers through smart phones.
It was agreed in the meeting to carry on coordinated efforts to ensure effective training, and entrepreneurship development for better employability of youth both in the local and international markets.
