ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) in collaboration with Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) organized an awareness seminar on pre-qualification of industries. The main objective of pre-qualification is to ensure that the industries/establishments having adequate capacity to provide skills training are invited to submit technical and financial proposals in upcoming schemes of PSDF.
The pre-qualified industries/ establishments would be provided funds for providing skills training to unemployed youth of Punjab having age bracket of 18-25 years so that after getting training they could be able to find jobs in industries and earn a decent living.
Addressing the seminar, Zohaib Haq, Head Program Development, Punjab Skills Development Fund said that PSDF was working to shape the future and well-being of Punjab’s poor and vulnerable youth by giving them access to skills training of the highest standard so that they could find sustainable employment and income-generating opportunities in Pakistan and beyond. He said that the various vocational and technical training institutes were providing training that was not meeting the needs of industry and PSDF would provide funds to industries/establishments so that they could provide skills trainings as per their needs. He said the pre-qualified industries would have to give employment to 50 percent of the trained youth. He said interested industries/ establishments with at least 3-year existence could apply for pre-qualification by 10th September 2018.
Highlighting the achievements of PSDF, Zohaib Haq said that his organization was working in 36 districts of Punjab and has so far provided skills training to 300,000 youth of Punjab in 250 trades out of which 96000 were females.
Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that PSDF was providing funds to industries to train youth according to their needs which was laudable. He said by providing funds for trainings, PSDF was making useful contribution to strengthen the SMEs and provide jobs to unemployed youth. He stressed that SMEs should take benefit of PSDF funding support to train youth according to their requirements. He assured that ICCI would cooperate with PSDF in such future initiatives as well.
Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President, Nisar Mirza Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry and others also spoke at the occasion and appreciated the initiative of PSDF for producing trained youth.
