Punjab Study

LAHORE: January 27:PUNJAB Skill Development Fund has procured services from 31 training organisations for providing training to 17,000 individuals in the targeted neglected districts of the province. The training will be imparted under PSDF’s first product Skills for Employability, launched in June 2011.

Punjab Skill Development Fund awarded contracts worth up to Rs 442 million in different contract signing ceremonies which were held in Bahawalpur and Lahore.

The selected four districts are Muzafargarh, Lodhran, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar. The rationale behind the selection of these four districts of the province is that the districts were amongst the 10 poorest districts of the province with poverty rate of 51.30 per cent in Bahawalnagar, 55.07 per cent in Bahawalpur, 51.75 per cent in Muzaffargarh and 50.40 per cent in Lodhran.

Ali Sarfraz, Punjab Skill Development Fund CEO, talking to The News said that contracts were signed with the representatives from the different training organisations. These organizations will provide training to eligible candidates in 71 sectors.

It is pertinent to mention here that the product’s initial target was to train 6,000 eligible candidates, including one-third females, from the target districts, however, the figure was increased three times by the PSDF’s Board keeping in view the overwhelming response from the training providers and interest shown by the candidates.

Punjab Skill Development Fund will provide funds on the basis of per trainee cost excluding capital expenditure. “As a result of PSDF’s engagement, new training capacity more than four times that of TEVTA’s in the four districts has been generated,” Ali Sarfraz said, adding that the Fund had also significantly expanded choice for potential trainees by expanding available options of vocational trades in South Punjab.

PSDF-financed trainings will be imparted in 71 trades which are two and fourfold respectively of the number of trades offered by TEVTA and PVTC in the four districts. Training services to be procured by Punjab Skill Development Fund cover vocational programmes with duration of three to eight months.

Educational requirement for entry into such courses is to be matriculation or lower. Ideally service providers must have expertise in community mobilization, vocational training delivery and placement services.

Most conventional training providers have formed consortia to deliver services required by Punjab Skill Development Fund. Proposals received by Punjab Skill Development Fund are not restricted to service providers from the target districts, rather they are from across the country.

These proposals for skills training were evaluated on the basis of: demonstrated demand for proposed skills; content and quality of training, and community mobilisation. Competition on the basis of technical and financial proposals means that a cost-efficient training organisation that values quality has a high probability of being selected.

Punjab Skill Development Fund assigns a high weight to quality. To demonstrate quality, training organisations are required to build a case for demand of the proposed skills (supported by evidence) and their ability to deliver the training.

The initial response to Punjab Skill Development Fund’s call for proposals has been tremendous with innovative and non-traditional training services being proposed by the bidding entities, Ali Sarfarz concluded.The news.