Punjab’s skill development strategy

The pursuit of economic growth may remain elusive without improving human capital. As per Euromonitor, almost 35 percent of Pakistan’s estimated population of 229 million in 2016 will be in the 13-29 year age bracket. Educating and training this nearly 80 million demographic – and providing a roadmap for the coming generation, for there will be nearly 63 million under-13s by 2016 – should figure really high on government agenda.
Being the most-populous province, Punjab hosts maximum number of youth in the country. The Punjab government has been working on skill development via organizations like Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) and Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC). Both organizations also figure for expansion, given that they would be allocated over Rs12 billion for development spending over FY16-18.
However, the government’s efforts in the face of challenge seem wanting. For instance, Tevta, the leading institute, had only 85,854 enrolled students in all districts in 2013-14. That figure doesn’t come close to even a tenth of a percent of Punjab’s population. As per latest data, Tevta’s “DAE”, which is arguably most sought-after technical qualification in the province, graduated 78,254 students in three years ending 2013.
Now the Punjab Chief Minister has recently announced that his government would train two million youths into skilled workers over next three years. To prepare the roadmap, the London-based firm City&Guilds, which works in the skill development realm, has reportedly been hired.
Given that there are millions of additions to labour force each year, the said plan to develop two million folk into skilled workers in three years seems modest. However, as highlighted above, the provincial government does not yet have the capacity to graduate even a hundred thousand skilled workers in one year, what to talk of one million. That is an undesirable state of affairs.
Let’s be clear: in scaling up vocational training, public sector alone will fall short. So, the solution has to be found in public-private partnership. Perhaps a cue can be taken from Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF). PSDF was set up in 2010 with DFID support in four Punjab districts, and has now expanded to over 14 districts.
PSDF is said to have successfully trained many thousand workers in a number of employment-intensive sectors. By providing funding resources to private, public and non-profit sector training organizations, PSDF is aiming to create a “training market” to feed the market’s needs.
This “market” approach can be effective in achieving scalability and effective in utilizing resources. One hopes the upcoming skill-development strategy will focus on innovative, scalable solutions in order to support economic growth for this youth-heavy country.