ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: Speakers at a seminar on Friday urged the government to introduce self-employment schemes for youth besides increasing investment in education and vocational training.

The seminar on “employment issues of youth in current economic scenario of Pakistan” was organised by Future Youth Group, an initiative of Liberal Forum Pakistan. They said employment opportunities were not keeping pace with the growth of the workforce. Besides this, the type and quality of these opportunities did not match the expectations of many educated job seekers.

They were of the view that this reflected inadequacies both in the type of employment and the type of education being imparted to youth.

They stressed that the curriculum should be updated aimed at bringing it in line with the market requirements, so that the educated youth could get appropriate jobs after completing their studies. They also called for enhancing the capacity of technical and vocational training to produce skilled workforce.

They said more employment opportunities should be created in the rural areas to prevent migration of job seekers to the urban areas.

It was suggested that private sector employers should be encouraged to establish their own training institutions by providing incentives in the shape of tax rebate or duty free import of machinery, etc.

Secretary Youth Affairs Ashfaque Mehmood speaking on the occasion said that national youth policy had been finalised and would soon be presented to the cabinet for approval.

He said that policy had been chalked out while taking all stakeholders on board to make it more receptive to modern trends and effectively prepare the youth for their role as leaders of the country. He said that the government was committed to resolving problems of the country’s youth and would work out more programmes for their uplift.

He said the National Youth Policy had been prepared to mainstream the youth, harness their talent and energies and address the challenges they are confronted with in today’s world.

He said different Ministries and Organizations were already working in various areas related to youth. “This policy aims at integrating their programmes and providing overall sense of direction consistent with the needs of the country,” he remarked.

He said the proposed policy laid emphasis on promotion of entrepreneurship so as to produce job providers rather than job seekers. He said the establishment of National Youth Fund had been proposed to provide support for viable research and entrepreneurship projects of the youth. He said efforts were under way to revive internship programme and make it more meaningful.

He said the development programme was not as pro-active as it used to be in the past. He conceded that the situation had deteriorated in terms of transparency and allocation of jobs on merit over the years. “This point of view must be highlighted at every forum”, he stressed.

The Secretary Youth Affairs observed that in a feudal based society, the problems cannot be overcome overnight. “This however does not mean that we should surrender”.

He rejected the notion of brain-drain and said there was no harm in seeking jobs abroad. He however said the demands of culture and identity should not be set in oblivion.

Chairman Pakistan Liberal Forum Anees Jilani and President Future Youth Group Asiya Arif also spoke on the occasion.