LAHORE: The federal government will set up vocational secondary schools across the country to impart training to students.

This will help decrease the dropout ratio of students, said Minister of State for Education Balighur Rehman after distributing prizes among winners of competitions on the second day of National Skills Show at the Expo Centre on Wednesday.

All provincial governments have allocated sufficient funds for promotion of vocational training during the current financial year, the minister said.

Punjab Minister for Finance Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said provision of jobs to the youth was a priority of the provincial government. The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority introduced demand-driven short courses while keeping in view requirements of the industry, which was a step in the right direction.

Punjab Industries, Commerce and Investment Minister Chaudhry Shafiq said without promoting technical education and vocational training, economic growth was not possible.

Tevta Chairman Irfan Qaiser said more than 3,500 job applications had been collected during the two-day show. Holding of a career counselling conference had borne fruitful results because experts in various sectors shared their professional knowledge with participants.

Diplomats from Iran, Middle East and African states, Iran, Malaysia, Russia, renowned industrialists Sikandar M Khan, Abdul Basit, Syed Mehmood Ghaznavi, Mian Muhammad Idrees and Rehmatullah Javaid also attended the ceremony.

Published in Dawn, March 31th, 2016