PEOPLE aspiring to pursue a career in various fields choose their vocation based on their interest and aptitude. The more knowledge and expertise they acquire in their respective field, the better are their chances of getting suitable positions within the hierarchy of an organisation.

Where to study and what qualifications they are to obtain in order to achieve this goal is at their discretion, with so many options available within and outside the country.

Those joining organisations to fill positions of technicians and operators come from middle-class families and are usually trained in various technical training institutes across the country. At present, there are 250 such institutes operating in Sindh. Does the training provided to them and the level of skills achieved by the trainees meet the requirement of industries? Do they gain better skills than those of the apprentices trained by the organisations under their own apprenticeship programmes established under the law?

One glaring difference between the two is that the employers train apprentices only in the trades required in their organisations. On the other hand, institutes train students according to their own curriculum, bereft of any prior consultation with employers.

There’s little industrial progress without vocational training.

This fact has recently been acknowledged by the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority. Stevta believes that currently there is a mismatch between the skills needed by employers and the skills and competencies of students trained for employment in Pakistan, especially those graduating from publicly funded technical and vocational training institutes. In order to address this issue, it has teamed up with the British Council, which has experience of evolving demand-led vocational training.

Time and again, questions have been raised as to how demand-led training can best be developed in Pakistan. Several countries, including Egypt, South Africa and the UK, have faced difficulties in engaging employers on vocational training and there have been varying degrees of success achieved in these efforts.

At present, Pakistan is a considerable distance away from ensuring proper vocational training but if employers are fully involved in designing technical education and vocational training programmes, a large number of people will be able to benefit from them.

Looking at history, there appears to be a strong nexus between industrial progress and the effectiveness of vocational training programmes. The only period during which Pakistan experienced an industrial boom was from 1958 to 1968, when new manufacturing companies came into existence all over the country.

Entrepreneurs were facilitated by the government in setting up infrastructure for production units and encouraged to invest in such businesses. Industries such as light engineering, textile, chemical and pharmaceuticals were established in the private sector while the government itself took the lead in constituting the Water and Power Development Authority and the Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation in the public sector.

Inspired by such a favourable environment, global corporate giants like Exxon Chemical and ICI etc established their manufacturing facilities in the country. When ICI ventured to install a paints factory in Lahore in 1965, the then government took pride in taking visiting dignitaries to various plant tours in order to demonstrate to them its industrial strength.

At the same time, the government was equally conscious of the need to generate skilled manpower in various fields comprising technicians and operators to run the industry. In order to achieve this goal, the Apprenticeship Ordinance, 1962 and the Apprenticeship Rules, 1966 were promulgated. The ordinance made provisions for promoting, developing and regulating systematic apprenticeship programmes in industries with the purpose of securing certain minimum skill standards. It was mandatory under the law for every company having manufacturing units to train at least 20pc of the total number of persons employed in ‘apprenticeable’ trades.

All manufacturing companies implemented the apprenticeship scheme acquiring benefits for themselves and creating job opportunities for trained manpower not only within the country but also abroad. Thereafter, with the slackening of industrial growth and the government’s lack of interest in carrying out modifications in the law to match the changing needs of industry, the Apprenticeship Ordinance has become obsolete and lost its utility.

It is believed that 30pc of Pakistan’s current population of around 185 million comprises people who are under 30. In order to make decent job opportunities available to them, they need to be qualitatively trained in skills required by the industries. At the same time, the Apprenticeship Ordinance 1962 and the rules made thereunder require drastic revamping to revive their effectiveness.

The writer is an industrial relations professional.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2015