By Adnan Rafique
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar Thursday said massive investment was being made in skill development of youth as the government spent upto Rs 150,000 on each participant of the Skill for All (Hunarmand Pakistan) programme. Addressing a cheque & certificate-distribution ceremony of the Kamyab Jawan Programme (KJP) here at the National University of Technology, he said unlike the previous regimes, the present government was making durable investment in the youth instead of spending huge amount of fund on the laptops. We are spending money on young people to produce skilled workforce. Therefore, an amount of Rs 70,000 to Rs 150,000 is being spent on each course [of the Hunarmand Pakistan]. He said 170,000 youth were being imparted trainings in traditional and high-tech trades under the Hunarmand Pakistan Programme which was a major component of the KJP.
The SAPM noted that around 37,000 young people had completed their six-month courses in traditional and high-tech trades under its first phase, while training of another batch of 55,000 youth was underway. He said that National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) would soon enroll the rest of targeted youth for the various trainings under the programme.
Usman Dar said the youth, trained under ‘Ustad-Shagird’ model, were being provided Recognition of Prior Learning certification which would eventually help them get jobs in local and overseas markets. He said 20,000 students were being empowered under its apprenticeship initiative which was another project of the KJP. Regretting the less focus of previous governments on improving the skill-set of workforce, he lashed out at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government for spending Rs 50 billion to procure one million laptops.
He said the present government was making all-out efforts to create a conducive environment for job creation in the country, adding the youth was being empower to generate employment opportunities in each province. The SAPM termed the KJP an apolitical and transparent programme which was providing level-playing field to the youth. He said there had been marked upsurge in economic activity across the country as 10,000 new businesses had been launched under the KJP. Usman Dar added that an amount of Rs 8 billion had been disbursed among 10,000 young people under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of KJP.
