PESHAWAR: The provincial government has approved Rs5 billion digital skills training programme for 100,000 young graduates under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB).

A statement issued here said that this approval was accorded in a meeting of KPITB, which was chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.

The meeting was informed that the skills training programme would be implemented with an estimated cost of Rs5 billion under which different digital skills courses of three to six months duration would be arranged for graduates.

It was stated that the youth would be imparted digital skills training in accordance with the needs of local and international markets in the different sectors of information and communication technology to enhance their employability in the online market.

Besides offering employment opportunities, scholarships and nanodegrees would be awarded to the successful candidates.

Under the intermediate level digital skills, 60,000 youth would be trained whereas 20,000 youth would get training under the advanced level. The rest of the youth would be imparted training courses in the third level of the programme called nanodegree.

In the intermediate level digital skills, training would be imparted in web development, graphic designing, animation, digital marketing and e-commerce whereas under the advanced level the youth will be trained in block-chain, data engineering, artificial intelligence, computer networking, cyber security, business intelligence and cloud computing.

About the Youth Employment Programme, the participants were informed that 13,700 youth had been trained under the medium level and over 1,600 youth under advanced digital skills level.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that empowering youth by providing them employment opportunities was the sole purpose of this programme. He said skilled manpower of 100,000 people would be ready within six months in the province.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2022