Ministry of Industries has decided to initiate a skill mapping exercise at district levels across the country, which is aimed at providing workforce with critical skills to various sectors of national economy, sources told Business Recorder.
In this regard, the ministry of industries has approved a plan, which has been prepared by Technology Up-gradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC), sources said. The working paper of TUSDEC said mapping exercise would help in identifying the qualitative and quantitative skill shortages, which are being faced by different sectors of economy. The mapping will also inform about the existing and potential job opportunities at various places in different sectors.
The skill mapping exercise will help in tackling problems of low productivity in agriculture and industrial sectors. The provision of skilled manpower will also improve the poor quality of industrial goods due to lack of critical skills, the paper said.
According to the paper, skill identification of quantitative shortage will provide information about the scarcity of required skills. While identifying the qualitative skill shortage, the actual competency level of the workforce employed in different sectors will be compared with the desired level of competence so that the skill gap could be determined and bridged subsequently.
A pilot project will be initiated under skill mapping exercise in Lahore district with focus on automobile sector. The purpose of this project is to identify the quantity and quality of skills of people available with the auto parts vendors in the automobile industry, which will ultimately help in developing this growing manufacturing industry in Pakistan.
The TUSDEC is taking initiative at a time, when the technical educational institutions have failed to provide really required skilled workforce to industries, modern agriculture, and other sectors of the economy, said an official.
The initiative is being taken after Pakistan experienced a bad situation that really skilled people have either left or are leaving the country in the hope of better prospects of job opportunities with better salary packages.
According to some recent reports, the growing shortage of skilled labourers is adding to the worries of textile industry. The industry has called for setting up training institutes to overcome the shortage and Export Development Fund (EDF) contributed by the textile exporters, should be used for the purpose. The textile industrialists say training facilities should be set up on war footing.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, on several occasions, has called for initiating need-driven and market-oriented skill development courses for the uplift of national economy and the TUSDEC's initiative would be a big step to materialise the objective of the government and the private sector, said the official.
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