PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Industries, Commerce and Technical Education Department has initiated a Special Emphasis Programme (SEP) for the youth of merged districts by bringing innovation in skill development that would ultimately lead to an increase in the employment rate in the areas.
Presented during a workshop in Peshawar, the AIP-funded programme titled “Installing Youth in Employment” will be mainly based on vocational training and matching grants for enterprises to spur economic growth in the merged areas.
The present unemployment rate in the merged areas is 11 per cent with a labour force participation of 40pc. Female labour force participation stands at a mere 3pc.
Currently, there are approximately 3,000 students enrolled in the various technical and vocational training institutes within the merged areas. The SEP aims to elevate the role of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (KP-TEVTA) to that of a moderator and facilitator while giving service providers from the private sector the responsibility to implement training.
Secretary Industries, Javed Marwat, while addressing the participants of the workshop said that a lot of impetus was on infrastructure development while human development also had to be undertaken on priority.
“There is a huge potential for private sector growth in the Merged Areas as there are untapped opportunities and unexploited resources that are up for grabs”, he said, adding that mining, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, transport and marble have been recognised as sectors with sufficient potential.
Elaborating the specifics of SEP, UNDP Merged Areas Governance Project Sector Specialist Ahmed Umair said that stipend-based training services would benefit as many as 5,000 youngsters across a total engagement period of 12 months at a cost of Rs120,000 per trainee.
The programme is expected to result in employment for 50pc of the trainees with an expected increase of 20pc in mean household income.
Similarly, the matching grant component of the programme will benefit 500 enterprises with an expected increase of 20pc profitability post-grant. The size of the grant would be between Rs500,000 to Rs2,000,000.
Three districts including Khyber, Kurram and Mohmand have been proposed for piloting the programme.
