Islamabad: Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif’s Youth Skill Development Programme (PMYSDP) has trained 75,000 young people — both male and female — during the past three years in more than 100 demand-driven trades across Pakistan.
The scheme has been launched to train the unemployed youth of the country to acquire productive skills for gainful employment, the chairperson of PMYSDP, Leila Khan, said.
Talking to APP here on Sunday, Khan termed the scheme as remarkable initiative of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government for socioeconomic development of youth in a bid to combat soaring unemployment.
She said the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), Ministry of Education and Trainings, is executing the scheme in collaboration with provincial TEVTAs and other 340 government/private sector skills training institutes that tailor the programmes to today’s needs.
Sharing three years worth of statistics of the scheme, Khan said Phase-I and II have been successfully completed, under which 50,000 youth were provided training to enhance employment opportunities, alleviate poverty and provide skilled workforce to large-, medium- and small-scale industry.
She said Phase-III of the programme has been divided into two batches and 25,000 youth have been successfully trained in the first batch. The training classes of another 25,000 trainees under Phase III (Batch-II) in demand-driven trades began on January 2.
She said 33 per cent of the training slots are reserved for women trainees. Madaris graduates and disabled youth are also catered to under the plan.
Replying to a question, Khan said all young men/women aged up to 35 years with middle level education are eligible to undertake the training programme and average fee support is Rs5,000 (Dh175) per month for six months. The stipend is Rs3,000 per month for six months and Rs4,000 per month per student for students from Federally Administered Tribal areas (Fata). In few trades free tool-kits are also provided.
The chairperson said budget allocation for Phase-III (2015-16) was Rs2.63 billion, Phase-II (2014-15) was Rs1.187 billion, and for Phase-I (2013-14) the budget allocation was Rs800 million. Students are selected for trainings as per National Finance Commission award quotas.
Khan said Prime Minister’s Youth Programme includes six schemes: PM’s Youth Business Loan Scheme, PM’s Interest Free Loan Scheme, PM’s Youth Skill Development Programme, PM’s (National) Programme for Provision of Laptops to Talented Students, PM’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme for Less Developed Areas, and PM’s Youth Training Scheme.
