Private sector wants enabling environment for PPP

KARACHI, Jan 23, 2013: Speakers at a seminar has urged the government to create an enabling environment for public private partnership in technical and vocational education and training (TVET), as the gap between demand and supply of the workforce cannot be bridged with only public sector initiatives.

This was the crux of a seminar entitled “Public Private Partners in TVET”, which was organized jointly by Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA) and Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) in collaboration with TVET Reform Support Programme, co-financed by the European Union, the Kingdom of Netherlands and Federal Republic of Germany.

Sindh Minister for Technical Education Sadiq Ali Memon said the provincial government is committed to improve the TVET system in Sindh. He acknowledged that mistrust exists between public and private sector over their roles in making training delivery as market-oriented. He said steps will be taken to cut this fog and to build trust between public and private sectors to move forward to achieve the vision of “Employment through Skills”

Managing Director STEVTA Jaffar Abbasi in his welcome remarks informed the audiences about the initiatives of STEVTA for improving quality of TVET and making it demand driven. He appreciated PVTC and TVET Reform Support Programme for organizing the seminar at national level for raising the awareness of TVET system in Pakistan.

Khawaja Nauman President Employers Federation of Pakistan shared the initiative taken by EFP for the public private partnership. He said EFP in collaboration with TVET Reform Support Programme/GIZ is to hold an employer’s of the year award 2012 to acknowledge the efforts of those companies, which are taking part in provision of TVET. He invited all the companies from public and private sector to participate for this award. This step is taken to improve TVET in Pakistan and encourage more companies to be part of TVET delivery system, he said.

Dr. Ute Hoffmann, Coordinator TVET Reform Support Programme/GIZ gave the background of the TVET reform in Pakistan. Employers are not satisfied with the quality of training, trainees lack in practical and employeeable skills. In Pakistan expenditure for education is 2.1% of GDP which is lowest in the region. Lastly, she discussed some opportunities to achieve jointly visible TVET results.

Mr. Faisal Ijaz Chairman PVTC encouraged the private sector to come forward and play its role as the companies are the one who know the needs of skills. He said that Pakistan should follow the models of the European countries in which industry and private sector play the key role in provision of TVET.

Mr. Nazar Ali Director STEVTA elaborated about the concept of “Public Private Partnership”. He discussed the problems faced by TVET System. The main challenge is to provide relevant demand driven training to the youth. There is a huge need for this partnership as it is not possible foe the single stakeholder to meet these challenges. Private sector has a good governance system. It can partner with the public sector to provide better opportunities to the users, he said.

Managing Director PVTC Sajid Naseer Khan shared the silent features of some of the Public Private Partnership initiatives that his organization has undertaken with different industrial units in Punjab and observed that these models can be replicated at national level.