By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs (SAPM) Usman Dar Wednesday said Hunarmand Pakistan would offer high technology training to youth based on modern digital trends. The programme is going to be launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday (January 8) under the banner of Kamyab Jawan Programme whereas the Hunarmand Pakistan (Skills for All) was designed on the basis of recommendations of National Skills Strategy Task Force headed by Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood that tabled robust and out of the box proposals to develop the programme, the SAPM said while briefing the media over launch of the Hunarmand Pakistan Programme here. Usman said it was the largest skill development programme in the history of the country that would impart training on emerging technologies and latest advancements of the 21st century. “All of the skill training programmes launched earlier were focusing on numbers of masses to be trained on conventional trade skills where nobody talked about information technology and modern developments taking place in the world. They only set target to cater around 200,000 people under those projects. Hunarmand Pakistan programme would impart training on artificial intelligence, robotics and many others,†he added. Hunarmand Pakistan, he said was the New Year gift to the youth of Pakistan by the prime minister. The youth should prepare themselves to get skill set training under this programme which would help them to seek relevant jobs in the industry and market alongwith the opportunity to get assistance to set up new businesses as well, he added. Dar said, “Our target is to benefit 80 percent youth of the country through Hunarmand Jawan Programme where they would get job and business opportunities after getting skill based training.†He said it was the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to have skill sets to enhance human resource in line with the job market trends and also enable the youth with better business opportunities. He said, “The Startup Pakistan Programme is also providing assistance to the youngsters whereas an internship programme is also in the pipeline which would be launched within few months. Green Youth Movement is also going to be launched where the youth creating innovative projects for environment conservation would be financed under the programme.†The special assistant said that all these five components of Kamyab Jawan Programme would be launched in 2020 to benefit the youth. Prime Minister Imran Khan would also inaugurate an online portal for the registration of Hunarmand Pakistan Programme on the launching ceremony. To a question, he said, “I would like the media to audit the Kamyab Jawan Programme which is completely transparent, on merit and free from any political interference.†All the loans issued under the programme were being issued through the artificial intelligence based online system. Responding to another query pertaining to Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) regime’s youth development programmes’ outcome, Dar said the global youth development index number of Pakistan was 89 in 2013 which declined to 154 in 2017 during their regime. He said the PML-N’s youth development programme received only 109,000 applications in 5 years where Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Kamyab Jawan Programme got 1 million applications in just 15 days and I think the youth of the country for giving such overwhelming response to the programme. “The Kamyab Jawan Programme was not a loan or bank lending scheme rather it’s core objective was uplifting the local industry and small businesses. The youngsters who have a clear and properly designed business plan will get loan for implementing his idea,†Dar noted.
