Plan devised for producing qualified skilled workforce

PESHAWAR, July 14, 2014: The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) have devised a comprehensive plan to introduce for the first-time competency based training in selected technical education and vocational training (TVET) institutes across Pakistan.

Implementation of this new training approach, which will cause a paradigm shift the way TVET delivery is done currently in Pakistan, will start in September this year.

This was shared at a workshop organized by the NAVTTC in collaboration with the TVET Reform Support Programme, which is co-funded by the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany and implemented by theDeutsche Gesellschaft fürInternationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Apart from a large number of TVET experts, government officials, chairman Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education and Vocational Training Agency (TEVTA) NaumanWazir, Secretary Technical Education FATA Abid Majeed, Director General NAVTTC (S&C) Muhammad Yayha, National Deputy Coordinator TVET Reform Support Programme Raja Saad Khan attended the session.

Speaking on the occasion, the experts underlined the importance of competency based training, saying currently the curricula being implemented in the TVET institutes have limited linkage with the industry and the businesses. As a result, the trainees even after finishing their training are unable to fulfill the needs of the job market.

With competency based training approach, however, the trainees will learn in a comparatively real work place environment, as the industry or employer will have a direct role in identifying the skills needed, designing of curricula and assessment of the trainees, explained an official involved with the new training approach.

During the session, the KP TEVTA officials identified a number of trades and institutes where the competency based training programmes can be initiated by September, when the new academic session will begin in KP.

As per the plan, the NAVTTC will have similar workshops in Karachi, Lahore and Muzaffarabad to complete the identification and selection of 60 institutes and trades for the implementation of competency based training, which is being supported by the TVET Reform Support Programme.

After successful implementation of these 60 training programmes, it will be gradually replicated to all the training institutes, which will make Pakistan among many countries where TVET system is being overhauled with a view to increase the engagement of the private sector in the training delivery.