- Most Pakistani laborers in CPEC are unskilled, leaving space for the Chinese skilled workers to seize the employment opportunities
ISLAMABAD: The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) has planned to initiate technical and vocational training for semi or unskilled local youth to meet the job requirements of the upcoming China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
CPEC will attract more than 1.2 million direct jobs through various projects during the next 10 years. However, a large number of local workers lack the required skills to benefit from these opportunities.
“The mega project has already provided employment to around 75,000 people during the last five years, but a large portion of them comprised of raw labourers, leaving space for the Chinese skilled workers to seize the employment opportunities in early harvest projects of CPEC,” a report of Center of Excellence for CPEC revealed.
Pakistani market has the 9th largest labour force in the world with an estimate of 61 million workers, out of which 5.9pc are unemployed, it said, adding that despite a huge bulge of unemployment, the early harvest projects of CPEC were reported to lack of required skill sets and experiences in the domestic labour market.
“Consequently, the Chinese companies had to opt for foreign workers and the proportion of unskilled domestic labourers hired in these projects were more than the skilled and technical labourers of Pakistan.
For example, an energy plant under CPEC hired almost 3,000 skilled labourers, of which 77pc were of Chinese origin,” the report highlighted.
A main factor identified in the discussed problem was the gap between the Chinese companies and the labour market of Pakistan. In this regard, a collaborative job portal, comprising the database of skilled and unskilled labours had been established to forward the demand from Chinese firms to the suppliers of the labour market, including NAVTTC and Higher Education Commission.
This job portal can bridge the Chinese companies with their relevant demand of labourers.
NAVTTC maintains the data of its students in a secured talent pool database which does not compromise on its authenticity. The data is constantly updated to know the real time situation of their students.
The Chinese companies face inadequate circumstances when they ask for the skilled workforce in a specific district.
The initiative will serve to connect the skilled workforce with the job opportunities under CPEC by providing a unique demand driven database to employers.
The Chinese companies will register with the National Job Portal for CPEC and they would be required to enlist their future labour demand according to the nature of the project.
Subsequently, NAVTCC will initiate technical and vocational training for the semi or unskilled local youth to make them capable to meet the demand of the employers at their proposed location in the near future.
