Skilled youth can fulfill industrial HR needs, uplift economy: minister

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood on Friday said that skilled youth could uplift national economy through cost-efficient processes and fulfill the needs of industrial human resource (HR).

Shafqat Mehmood said this while addressing the opening ceremony of ‘Job Fair and Skills Expo’, organised by the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) in collaboration with the TVET Sector Support Programme in Karachi to promote workplace-based training. The TVET Sector Support is being funded by the European Union and the governments of Germany and Norway.

A large number of entrepreneurs, business fraternity and members of organizations of chambers of commerce and industry associations attended the event.

A large number of TVET institutes participated in the event to showcase the products and services produced by the skilled human resources having been trained under competency-based training (CBT) system.

The main objective of the event was to highlight the importance of vocational training, exhibit the skills of TVET trainees and to provide a platform for their employment.

In 2018, around 4,500 youth were trained and 2,500 declared competent and this job fair was an effort to facilitate these trainees to earn better employment for them.

Ambassador of the European Union to Pakistan, Jean-François Cautain on this occasion underscored the significance of job creation for skilled human resource in the economy of the country.

Sharing the experiences of the EU countries, he said countries like Germany, Norway and so on mitigated their economic woes through skill development as skilled human resource was the key to surmount economic efficiency challenges of the country.

The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission chairman appreciated the efforts of Sindh TVETA for their efforts in the province.

The speakers termed the skill development as key priority of the province to provide maximum jobs to skilled youth.