Govt Ready To Fully Support Industry For Skill Development: Shafqat Mehmood

Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training and National History, Shafqat Mehmood Thursday assured the business community of full cooperation and facilitation for skill development to meet the emerging needs of industries in the country

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Apr, 2019 ) :Federal Minister for education, Professional Training and National History, Shafqat Mehmood Thursday assured the business community of full cooperation and facilitation for skill development to meet the emerging needs of industries in the country.

The minister was speaking during an interactive session with members of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here at the Federation House.

Acting President FPCCI, Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Vice Presidents Muhammad Arshad Jamal and Muslim Mohamedi, senior MC Member Capt.(Retd) Abdul Rasheed Abro, former senior vice president Shaikh Khalid Tawab and former vice president Tariq Haleem, FPCCI Secretary General Dr. Iqbal Thaheem and Additional Secretary General Maher Alam Khan and Chairman NAVTTC Syed Javed Hassan were also present on this occasion.

The minister said that it was Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision to boost industrial sector which could bring socio-economic revolution in the country including generation of millions of jobs.

For achieving this goal, it was imperative to give professional trainings to the youth, especially the educated lot, to transform them into a skilled workforce to fulfill the need of industries in the light of technological revolution and the changing economies in the world.

And, he continued, the PTI government was ready to extend all possible facilitation and funds to the industry to initiate high-tech vocational training programmes.

He regretted that there was absence of linkage between academia and industry for sharing of knowledge and for research and professional trainings. There was need for creating supporting environment for setting up of standard training institutes in the country. The government had planned to set up Skill Development Councils in every province. His ministry had already submitted Rupees 21 billion professional training projects to the Planning and Development Commission. The government was also working on other professional training programmes in collaboration with Turkish government, he said.

"Our entire focus is on public-private partnership. We want to work jointly," he asserted.

Shafqat Mehmood said that NAVTTC was working on different training programmes through Provincial Governments and that the Federal Government was providing funds for the same.

To a question, he said that the government was very careful in introducing amnesty scheme so that flaws with the past schemes would not be repeated.