Khyber Pakhtunkhwa begins work on technical education promotion plan

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Wednesday launched work on preparation of action plan for promotion of technical and vocational education under 'National Skills Strategy 2009-13'. In this connection, a workshop was held under the auspices of KP Department of Technical and Vocational Education. A large number of stakeholders from both public and private sectors participated in it to prepare recommendations for the plan.
The National Skills Strategy 2009-13 was prepared by the federal government in collaboration with the provincial governments and was given the name of 'Vision 2030'. Similar programs will also be held in other provinces. German Technical Assistance (GIZ) is providing assistance under technical & vocational education training (TVET) reforms support.
Addressing the participants of the workshop, KP Minister for Technical and Vocational Education, Mehmood Zeb Khan said that the purpose and objectives of the workshop were to identify weaknesses in technical and vocational education and prepare an action plan for their redressal.
He said that the provincial government is making sincere efforts for the promotion of technical and vocational education and has included 40 development schemes in this regard in annual development program (ADP) for financial year 2011-12 and had sanctioned a hefty amount of Rs 2 billion for them.
The minister said that the province is facing the problem of unemployment while the public sector institutions lack capacity to adjust them. He said that 80 percent budget of the institutions goes in payment of salaries to the employees. This has brought these institutions to the verge of collapse.
The only way out of the prevailing situation is provision of market-oriented skilled manpower and promotion of technical and vocational education to the young generation, he added. He thanked the GIZ for holding the workshop and beginning of the project from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He expressed hope that the German organisation would also play full role in the rehabilitation of the institutions in the province.
Mehmood said that the provincial government has also initiated a scheme for imparting technical skill to 1500 students and besides bearing the expenses of their education the government is also paying Rs 2000 scholarship per month to each student. He said that the provincial government has also launched a Rs 1.30 billion self-employment scheme for the facilitation of the skilled persons. Under the scheme, skilled persons will be provided soft loan up to Rs 0.3 million to initiate own business.
He dispelled the impression that the establishment of TVETA would affect the service structure of the employees of the technical education institutes and said that it would rather accelerate the process of the initiation of schemes. He said that the provincial government has already passed law for the educational sector.
The minister said that more than 400 vacancies exist in the department of Technical Education, which would be filled through recruitment of qualified B Sc Engineering and B-Tech degree holders. He added that the government had also upgraded 11 technical colleges and is constructing the buildings of eight technical colleges in which the classes of B-Tech level would start. He said that the GIZ would also support the provincial government in the rehabilitation of the vocational colleges and introduction of reforms in the Board of Technical Education so their degrees will be recognised every where in the world.