Technical education vital for employment, economic growth
PESHAWAR (APP):Enjoying the mesmerizing national song ‘A jawan-manzil hain aasman’ (O Youth-your goal to reach sky)’ on his mobile phone during installation of a CNG tank in a motorcar, auto mechanic Usman Ali (32) was working against the time to install as many tanks as possible keeping in view its high demands in the wake of unprecedented hike in petroleum products.
Assisted by two labourers Iftikhar and Manzoor, Usman Ali was so concentrated in installation of CNG kits in vehicles that he even could not spare time to have meal with fresh mouthwatering “Chappli Kabab” in his two-room auto workshop established in 2015.
After passing a three-year diploma in associate auto engineering from Government Polytechnic Institute Peshawar, the motivated mechanic had applied for a number of jobs in public sector departments but failed mostly on the grounds of insufficient experience in the field.
Terming unemployment as a social curse, the Peshawar-born mechanic said, ‘I never looked back after my father asked his childhood friend Waheed Khan, a resident of Lala Kallay Peshawar to help him in securing a dignified job. “Waheed took me to Shoba bazzar, a hub of autos workshops where I started fitting CNG kits and auto repairs in his relative workshop.”
Following five-year experiences, Usman who was called ‘Ustad” now by his fellows has established his own workshop at Tarnab Peshawar where customers from Nowshera, Peshawar and even from Afghanistan were coming for the installation of CNGs tanks and kits, thus financially contributing to the country’s development process.
“The labour charges of CNG installations varies keeping in view of size of the vehicles and number of CNG tanks,” said Usman, adding normally we charge Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per CNG tank installation.
He said an increase in the conversion of vehicles to CNG has been witnessed recently due to a hike in petroleum products owing to the global economic recession and the Palestine-Israel conflict.
“I have come from Nowshera district to get CNG tank installed in my car as petrol was beyond my purchasing power,” said Riazul Haq, a retired PST teacher while talking to APP. However, he complained about increase in prices of CNG tanks and labour charges that needed to be regulated by the district administration.
Dr Rehman Khattak, former Chairman Economics Department, University of Peshawar said that technical education encourages self-employment and ensures financial independence.
He said that about 58.9 million population of Pakistan was aged below 30 years and providing jobs to all of them was impossible for any government, adding out of 58.9 million youth population, about 40 pc is associated with labour workforce.
“Pakistan’s population is growing with about two percent rate and likely to become double in 2050 for which thousands of jobs would be required in government and private sectors besides oversees for which technical education was key,” he said.
More than 11 million Pakistanis had proceeded to over 50 countries for employment till December 2019 and sent about USD 21.84 billion during 2019 that was very low compared and it could be enhanced by promoting IT, civil, electrical and auto engineering.
Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) KP spokesman said that agreements with 32 reputable private organizations were signed to provide technical education to youth.
He said Rs1 billion projects were started for the purchase of equipment and other schemes while the authority’s budget was increased from Rs3 billion in 2016-17 to record Rs7 billion in 2002-23.
Under Education for All Vision 2030, he said about 5,000 students in each district of KP would be provided vocational training in IT and other technologies every year besides Rs2,000 scholarship per month to capture Gulf’s viz a viz EU markets.
Besides launching of Rs 1.30 billion self-employment scheme to provide soft loan up to Rs 0.3 million to skilled youth, he said 11 technical colleges were constructed and eight new technical colleges were being built in different districts of KP.
He said a sub-campus of the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore would be established at Peshawar where architecture, fine art, textiles and other designs would be taught.
Ms Javeera, spokeswoman for Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) said talented FA/FSc students from over 9.3 million beneficiaries would be selected for training in information technology and other technology cadres for self-financial empowerment.
She said Nowshera district has been selected for the pilot project to provide IT training to the FA/FSC students of BISP beneficiaries.
Scholarship of Rs1500 for primary, Rs2500 for elementary and Rs3500 for higher secondary level boy students and Rs 2000, Rs 3000 and Rs 4000 per girl student respectively were being proved after every three months to BISP beneficiaries, she concluded.
