By education Syed Nazar
Ali is a Mechanical Engineer and a MBA. He is the Chief Executive of
Skill Development Council (SDC), a project of Ministry of Labour,
Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis. Established in 1995-96 on the
initiative of World Bank, ILO and Employers' Federation of Pakistan
the primary objective of SDC is to develop a technical vocational
training programme which is demand-driven, flexible and cost effective
and seeks maximum involvement of employers — the end-user of trained
manpower. SDC was created under the National Vocational Training
Project by various donors including EEC, German Technical Assistance,
etc. Nazar has been associated with the Sindh Ministry of Labour
serving under many capacities as Deputy Director, Joint Director and
specializes in Technical, Vocational, Education and Training as Human
Resource consultant. He has also worked as consultant for the ILO in
strengthening a new approach of public -private partnership through
center management committee by professional engineers and has
participated in various national and international conferences related
to his specific sphere of work.
By Syed M. Aslam
May 13 -19, 2002
PAGE:
What's the relevance of SDC's role in Pakistan?
Syed Nazar Ali:
The primary objective of the SDC is the social uplifting of the
financially disadvantaged masses by providing them affordable
vocational training to enable them to get employment or
self-employment. The benefits are twofold — personal well-being and
the growth of the national economy. It also aims to bring back the
forgotten motto of 'dignity of labour', particularly in blue-collar
jobs, as per the teachings of Islam. The instillation of this dignity,
in turn, will help remove taboos associated with blue-collar jobs to
enhance image of this class which presently is limiting the growth of
trained vocational workforce in the country. This, in turn, is
resulting in inferior craftsmanship and products thereby eroding our
ability to compete in the international markets thus stagnating our
export base.
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What's been the SDC's contribution?
Syed Nazar Ali:
SDC has been much successful in catering to the needs of human capital
development by arranging training to over 10,000 youths in Karachi,
Sindh, one-fourth of them females. It has also imparted training to
another 4,000 employed persons to upgrade their skills pertaining to
ISO 9000, communications, quality management systems, etc. SDC offers
training in many fields such as industrial electronics,
instrumentation, air conditioning, refrigeration, automobile, medical
equipments and of course IT. The duration of courses offered by SDC
lasts from 2 to 12 months comprising basic technical courses to
professional competency-based training programmes.
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What is the fee structure like?
Syed Nazar Ali:
The fee structure varies from course to course depending on the level
of skill, facilities offered by the partner training institute and the
qualification of its teaching faculty. For instance, the fee of basic
course in Machine Shop , auto, computer literacy, etc., runs from Rs
350-750 per month. However, the fees professional development courses
costs any where from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per month.
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Does SDC has its own institutions?
Syed Nazar Ali:
No, SDC does not run the courses itself but rather collaborates with
the existing institutions, both public and private, to offer the
courses. It selects the institution based on training required for
each course. However, SDC designs and develops all the courses on the
basis of the assessment of the training need by involving the experts
and training professionals from the relevant industry through its
technical committee. After the development of the courses SDC identify
the institutes having the requisite infrastructure and training
facilities including the faculty for that particular course. There are
over 100 SDC-partner institutions in Karachi alone.
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Does SDC offer financial assistance?
Syed Nazar Ali:
SDC has introduced a financial assistance programme for needy youths,
particularly females. Under this programme over 600 students have been
provided either wholly free or half free training to over 600 such
youths. In addition, at present SDC has initiated the programme of
providing free professional and vocational training to the workers and
their children. Some 185 workers and children have completed this
training while another 222 are still doing it. This three-month
programme has been so success that the federal ministry of labour is
now planning to extend this programme shortly to unlimited number of
workers and their children paid from the resources available from
Workers' Welfare Fund.
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What's SDC doing to help eradicate the problem of child-labour?
Syed Nazar Ali:
To help eradicate child-labour SDC has also introduced an
education-cum-vocational training programme for the children working
in small workshops and garages with the support of ILO. Under this
ongoing programme 117 children in poor areas of Lyari, Qasbah Colony
and Orangi Town are receiving this particular training.
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