Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and the Hashoo Foundation arranged a one day consultative workshop titled ‘Youth Employability, Entrepreneurship Challenges, and the Way Forward’ at Hotel Margala here on Thursday.
The workshop began with a welcome address by the VSO Senior Programme Manager Sheryar Ahsan Khan. Marvi Memon also attended as the guest of honour and keynote speaker. Addressing the occasion, the chief guest said that the government was taking initiatives to address the needs of the youth and highlighted measures such as the Benazir Income Support Program and its beneficiary committees for women.
She emphasised on youth resilience in the shape of self-employment and expressed concern for the promotion of e-commerce, being determined to promote youth skills at all levels. She also appreciated the efforts of the VSO for arranging the workshop and said that such workshops can provide the government with invaluable support for addressing youth issues in the country.
The objective of the workshop was to bring the primary actors, stakeholders and policy makers on a common platform to discuss issues regarding youth employability and entrepreneurship in Pakistan. The workshop also looked forward to finding innovative ways of addressing the barriers to youth employability by the collaboration of key stakeholders against the needs of primary actors.
The sessions comprised of three separate but parallel panel discussions on different themes by national and international experts, selected policy makers, and the youth.
The first session titled ‘Amna Samna’ was based on exploring inclusion for creating opportunities of employment for the marginalised youth, followed by the other two sessions which were on the role of capacity development and skill enhancement for youth employability and entrepreneurship. Key recommendations of the workshop included the need for inclusive government policies and legislation for marginalised youths, and the need for a comprehensive mechanism to be devised in consultation with the key stakeholders to create opportunities with innovative approachs to mainstream youth in decision making processes.
