Skill Development Programme : An initiative for the Youth empowerment

Skill Development Programme : An initiative for the Youth empowerment

LAHORE (APP): Females from all districts of the province will have 40% share in the Skill Development Programme (SDP) Punjab.

The programme is aimed at enhancing employment prospects and incomes of youth, an official of the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) told APP here on Sunday.

He said that over 60% of Punjab's population is less than 30 years of age, while one million youngsters enter the workforce every year.

More than half of our children under 15 years of age are out of school, he added. He said that our young labour force has the lowest productivity growth in Asian countries.

There is a dire need for such training programme to equip the youth with employable skills and to enhance their job prospects, he added.

Training imparted under the programme will enable the youth to earn a livelihood for their families and improve their skills.

The programme has been conceived in the light of the Punjab Chief Minister's vision to provide employable skills to two million youth by 2018, he said.

The PSDF has so far funded training of more than 152,000 men and women across the Punjab under its various schemes for skills development, he concluded.