SAHIWAL: A two-day training workshop on talent grooming and career counseling of 46 students began on Tuesday at Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Sahiwal campus.

The workshop is being arranged by the Higher Education Commission and USAID under the “Pakistan-USAID Merit and Need Based Scholarship Programme”.

Students of masters and BS four-year programme from electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, software engineering and computer science attended the workshop. Among them, 18 are females.

Safdar Ali, CIIT student financial aid officer, told Dawn the participants were from CIIT’s Sahiwal and Okara campuses who were selected for full scholarship at the time of admission.

The scholarship is provided by USAID under which each student will get Rs800,000 to Rs1.2 million during his academic session.

HEC’s Sabeen Shahid said the training was diverted from metropolitan centres to Sahiwal so that underprivileged students were given a priority.

Dr Zaheeruddin Shaikh said the programme was not just about financial help, but it also aimed at grooming participants’ career, their prospects of earning independently from competitive market after completing academics courses.

Dr Nazir Ahmed Zafar thanked the HEC for conducting the workshop at Sahiwal campus.

One of the workshop participants said the training would help them find job.

HEC programme coordinator Naeem Akhter also spoke.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2016