Speakers stress on importance of quality, relevance of TVET

LAHORE, Nov 12, 2015: Speakers at a seminar here on Thursday termed quality and relevance as essential elements to ensure provision of vocational training, which enables young people attain employable skills and decent careers in the job market. This was the crux of a one-day seminar entitled –Quality Vocational Training for Socio-economic Development of Pakistan- organized by the Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) in collaboration with TVET Reform Support Programme. Besides a large number of experts and industrialists, trainees from different vocational training institutes of PVTC attended the seminar and also displayed their skills through an exhibition.

Speaking on the occasion, Managing Director PVTC Sajid Naseer Khan said that making the vocational training in line with the market demands is one of the important elements of the strategy, which PTC is implementing since its establishment. He said without quality and relevance, the young people cannot take advantage of the skills they learn at the training institutes. To this end, he said the PVTC is introducing competency based training (CBT) training in its 32 vocational training institutes across Punjab in collaboration with TVET Reform Support Programme, which is funded by the European Union and the governments of Netherlands, Norway and Germany.

This, he said, a new scheme which ensures greater involvement of the industry in the delivery of vocational training besides helping young boys and girls attain employable skills and decent career.

The introduction of CBT is an important element of the National Skills Strategy (NSS), which is the basis of the ongoing TVET sector reform in Pakistan and being supported by the European Union, the governments of Netherlands, Germany and Norway.

The CBT programme provides the basis for the implementation of the National Vocational Qualifications Framework (NVQF), which the government has launched in March this year at a national level. Under this paradigm shift, the training programs are designed and delivered by adopting a systematic approach, focusing on better employability of the trainees with a strong link to the market.

The duration of these new special training programmes ranges between 6-12 months. Apart from PVTC, the CBT programme is also being implemented in 84 TEVT & PVTC institutes across the country.

Mr. Khan further said that the PVTC has increased its training annual capacity from 53,600 to 134,762 trainees in pursuance of the chief minister directions under Punjab Growth Strategy.

Director General NAVTTC (Standards & Curricula) Ameer Haider, Coordinator TVET Reform Support Programme Hans-Ludwig Bruns and a number of other speakers, representing the public and private sectors also spoke on the occasion.

On the sidelines of the seminar, different vocational training institutes of PVTC had set up stalls to showcase different training courses offered by PVTC all over the province. There were 25 stalls in total where well-informed trainers, trainees and the passed out students accommodated the visitors and informed them about the significance and relevance of these courses and demand for those trained in them in the job market.