LAHORE – World Youth Skills Day will be celebrated on Tuesday globally to spotlight the transformative power of technical and vocational education in building inclusive economies and resilient societies.
Under the CM Skilled Punjab initiative, landmark programmes are in place as Rs 26 billion are allocated for skills development and entrepreneurship for the fiscal year 2025-26.
For the first time, Punjab has consolidated all TVET policy under a single Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Department (SDED)—bringing Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF), Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA), Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC), Punjab Skills Development Authority (PSDA) and Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE) under one strategic umbrella to ensure every effort is aligned with labour-market demand.
PSDF-Pakistan’s largest skills fund and the implementing arm of CM Skilled Punjab Initiative has spent 15 years building employer-led training pathways. In that time, it has enabled 600,000 graduates (44 per cent women) across 250 trades. Current flagship programs include PSDF | Tabeer – International Placement of Rs 2.7 billion for 2,500+ global job placements, PSDF | Mein Digital- Empowering rural women through IT of Rs 1billion for 3,000 educated rural women and PSDF | Pehchan- Skill Development Program for Transgenders for Rs 870 million for 2,250 marginalised transgenders, each designed to unlock new segments of talent and link them to high-value local or overseas work.
CM Punjab Task Force for Skills Development Chairperson Punjab, Adnan Afzal Chattha, Monday, stated that “Punjab’s young people are not just our future, they are our greatest present-day asset. By pairing world-class training with globally recognised certifications and overseas job pathways, we are turning potential into prosperity for families and Pakistan’s balance of payments.”
Across Pakistan, there are 3,000+ technical and vocational institutes with about 455,000 students enrolled—a capacity nowhere near sufficient for the 1.7 million new entrants to the labour force each year, underscoring the urgency of scalable, outcome-based models like PSDF’s.
On World Youth Skills Day, PSDF and the Government of Punjab reaffirm their commitment to equip every young Pakistani with the skills, confidence and global credentials needed to thrive at home and abroad in fields of their choosing; and to position Pakistan as a preferred source of skilled talent worldwide.
