Daily Times

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood on Friday stressed the need for skill-based education to compete job market requirements and urged educationists and academia of the country to play their role in modifying the current curriculum.

Addressing the certificates awarding ceremony under the Prime Minister’s Skill for All initiative in the Punjab University here, he said that the incumbent government was focusing on skill-based education and steps were being taken to promote it. “If a four-year degree programme is not fulfilling market requirements and one has to get skilled education too for getting an appropriate job, we must bring about improvements in the curriculum as per needs and requirements of the market”, he added.

He said that besides revising the curriculum, there was also a need for professionalism to produce talented and skillful labour at local as well international level. Shafqat Mehmood said the Covid-19 had affected the educational activities during the last two years, however, the government was taking measures to continue education besides ensuring safety of students. The minister praised the performance of the Punjab University for improving its QR ranking and said it was sanguine that the varsity was recruiting highly qualified faculty.

He said the vocational and training institutes were offering both entry level and high-end courses to meet demands. Shafqat Mehmood said that the federal government had allocated funds of billions of rupees for imparting skill-based education to the youth of the country. He added the government was extending a scope of training institutes besides accrediting private sector training institutions. Later, taking to the media, the minister said that the opposition parties were holding meetings just for protecting their personal interests, otherwise, they were not sincere with each other.

The minister said the people were standing with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and huge participation of the masses in the recent public gathering in Mandi Bahauddin was its true evidence. To a question, Shafqat Mehmood said that Prime Minister Imran Khan paid an important visit to Russia as the government was following a policy of maintaining good relations with all major countries, including the United States.