Policy sought to facilitate PPP in TVET sector

KARACHI Oct 5, 2013: Experts at a stakeholders’ consultation session have underlined the need for a policy framework to facilitate efficient delivery of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) through Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Experts both from public and private sectors gave this call at-Stakeholders’ Consultation On Public Private Partnership (PPP)-organized by Sindh Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA). TVET Reform Support Programme, which is co-funded by the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Federal Republic of Germany and being implemented by the GIZ, supported the initiative to facilitate implementation of PPP in Sindh.

The focus of this workshop was to discuss the contents of PPP policy for structuring the PPP initiation and implementation process, to share experiences of the existing PPP initiatives with the potential partners and establish strong networking with the partners as well as employers.

The consultation was attended by more than 100 participants from all over the Sindh Province, which included industrialists; NGO’s working in TEVT sector, training providers (Public-Private Sector) and officers of Sindh TEVTA.

In the workshop, it was emphasized that the issues of skills development under the globalized competitive environment has become too complex and it is difficult for single stakeholder be it government or the private sector to address with limited resources. Therefore, the TEVTAs (public sector) and the private sector should have to remain competitive in the local and international markets by adopting innovative training and production processes with use of sophisticated and high tech machinery. Resultantly, as a solution, there is a growing up recognition of the need for developing strategic partnership (public private partnership) between TEVT institutions and private sector.

It was further discussed, that for implementing the strategic partnerships there is a need of a policy document that gives direction for further actions and also highlights the roles and responsibilities of the partners. In this regard, different elements of the public private policy were shared and discussed with the participants along with the successful PPP models from Sindh and few international examples.

It was mutually agreed to develop a PPP policy for the TVET Sector and to involve the private sector representatives to identify, shortlist and discuss the best-fit PPP models for implementation in the Sindh region. Abbas Balouch, Managing Director – Sindh TEVTA at the end thanked the experts for their contribution and hoped that it will go a long way in developing workable PPP model in Sindh.