Partnerships are vital for TVET sector development in Pakistan

KARACHI Sept 12, 2013: Participants of a dialogue have stressed the need for promoting public private partnership to promote delivery of Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) in Pakistan.

The sessionentitled ‘Building Competitiveness through Public Private Partnership Dialogue’ was jointly organized by the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan (EFP) and Sindh Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA) with the technical assistance of TVET Reform Support Programme, co-funded by the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany and being implemented by the GIZ.

Addressing the dialogue, Khawaja Muhammad Nauman, president of the EFP, said that TEVT system offer one of the most practical means of acquiring and updating skills, ensuring a source of qualified workers for national and international market. Public private partnership, he added, is imperative for all stakeholders in order to improve TEVT sector training and to make them demand-driven, enabling the trained technical persons to have better opportunity of employment.

Attended by over 50 participants, including industrialists, members of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), officials of the provincial Labour and Industries departments, members of EFP, employers, non-governmental organisations working in TEVT sector, training providers and officers of Sindh TEVTA, the workshop was co-chaired by Secretary Industries ArifElahi and Secretary Labour Mr. Waseem Ahmed Ursani.

Both the government officials highlighted the efforts of the EFP, Sindh TEVTA and TVET Reform Support Programme in promoting the public private partnership in TEVT sector.

” We must utilise our young generation and make them productive through skills training, they said. “To achieve best results we would have to develop public private partnership,” said Mr. Ursani.

Industry can only be competitive, Mr. Elahi said, if it utilizes the services of skilled workforce. “Industry has to come up with recommendations for the type and nature of skills which it requires so that the technical institutions can provide the required skills training,” he said.ShaheenllyasSarwana (vice president FPCCI), Nazar Ali (director operations, Sindh TEVTA, Karachi), Khalil Ahmed Memon (director Public Private Partnership PPP, Sindh TEVTA, Karachi), Muhammad Tariq (director NTB Islamabad) andSusanne Magdalene Wallstein, Umer Baba Siddiqui and Hassan Siddiquifrom GIZ also spoke on the occasion.