ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: The federal government will provide an additional Rs2.30 billion to Sindh to help generate 60,519 new jobs per annum by imparting technical and vocational training to both boys and girls in the province.

Official sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the new funding will be used by the provincial government for “revamping the existing training system” as being an essential pre-requisite for employment generation and meeting the challenges of globalization and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime.

In the next three years 181,557 trainees will be trained from lower middle class families in the age bracket of 18-30 years.

The Sindh government will also use the new funding for enhancing the training capacity to 300,000 workers. Streamlining the training in both public and private training institutes and utilization of existing training infrastructure in the evening are the salient features of the proposed training programme in Sindh.

In order to implement the training programme effectively, the funds allocated through the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) shall be released/transferred to the Directorate of Manpower and Training (DMT), Provincial Training Board (PTB), Sindh in its designated account. Then the funds will be released to public and private sector training providers and the Skill Development Council as per the approved parameters of remuneration overhead contingencies.

The training programme will be coordinated and monitored by the DMT, Sindh on a regular basis both in public and private sector institutions. Trade Testing and Certification will be carried out by the DMT through the Trade Testing Board (TTB) on the basis of approved standards and Trade Testing parameters.

The Sindh training programme is part of the federal government plan to train “one million” youths within the next five years. At present, 33 vocational/technical training centres are functioning in Sindh having the training capacity of 4,242 trainees. The provincial government is in the process of establishing five new Technical Training centres, which would add the training capacity of 520 trainees in the system.

The plan envisages to enhance training capacity of existing infrastructure by introducing 3-6 months training course in the evening shifts by introducing new trades where needed. Also, maximum involvement and streamlining of private sector training institutes is included in the programme.

Skilled manpower is the backbone of the industry and industrial progress is difficult without availability of skilled manpower. “Development economy requires a larger number of trained workers to march towards industrialisation and economic development and poverty reduction,” the provincial government informed the Planning Commission.

The Sindh government has also said that its Directorate of Manpower and Training is making humble contribution in training of skilled manpower through TTCs/VTCs/ATCs working under the directorate.