PM for promoting skilled-based vocational training

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said that the government was promoting skilled-based vocational training to expand foreign remittances that would ultimately help improve the current account deficit of the country.

In his address after laying the foundation stone of the central campus of National University of Technology (NUTECH), the prime minister said the new campus would help produce thousands of skilled-based human resource every year who would play their key role in the country’s development, the official news agency reported.

The prime minister, pledging to make vocational education the government’s number one priority, said skilled human resource earn more than raw labour, hence increasing the country’s foreign remittances.

He said vocational training was key to prosperity and development in today’s era as nations prosperous only at the back of these skilled-based people.

He hoped that after completion, the campus would play a key role in promoting technical and industrial education in the country.

He recalled that he for the first time in 1997 put his full force to promote vocational training in the country when there was no comprehensive institution to look after this important area of the education sector.

Similarly, he said, the Punjab government led by him established Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) for which Rs2 billion annual funding was allocated to provide scholarships to talented and deserving students on merit base. He said this great project under Dr Amjad Saqib brought educational revolution in the province.

Likewise, he said, Danish schools’ project was also his brainchild which helped bridge the gap between rich and poor. “Until there is no discrimination of rich and poor, especially in the education sector, the Quaid-e-Azam’s vision of educational right for all cannot be fulfilled.”

He said only one month had left for this government and he was still making efforts to provide maximum relief to the people.

PM Shehbaz also distributed certificates among high-achieving youth in various fields.

Minister for Education and Professional Training Rana Tanvir Hussain said that the coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, with its untiring struggle, brought the country out of deep crisis and set it on the right path. Therefore, he hoped, that the people would vote for PMLN in the next general election.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Shaza Fatima said vocational education was as important as formal education. She said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during his previous tenures as Punjab chief minister worked really hard to promote technical and vocational education in the province.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb were also present on the occasion.