The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission has invited Expressions of Interest from registered and accredited training institutes to partner under the Country of Destination Program, a flagship component of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme aimed at preparing Pakistani youth for high demand jobs abroad. The invitation is open to reputable public and private sector training institutes already registered or accredited with the commission.
The commission is seeking partnerships across six sectors, including construction and infrastructure, manufacturing and industry, hospitality and tourism, driving, agriculture and livestock, and information technology. The objective is to partner with competent training institutes to train and groom Pakistani youth, equip them with basic language skills relevant to their destination countries, and prepare them for high demand international employment markets. Target destinations under the programme include Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and European Union countries.
The invitation follows a directive from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier this month, when he instructed Pakistani embassies abroad to intensify efforts to identify and secure overseas employment opportunities for Pakistani workers, and asked for a report on the performance of training institutes operating under the commission along with the establishment of Country of Destination Centers. During that meeting, officials briefed the prime minister that employment opportunities existed abroad across sectors including construction, agriculture, tourism, healthcare, transportation, biotechnology, manufacturing, shipbuilding, information technology, engineering, nursing, pharmaceuticals, and food production, with training programmes already underway to prepare Pakistanis for these roles.
Interested institutes can download the detailed Expression of Interest document from the commission’s official website, with complete proposals required to be submitted in sealed envelopes to the Director General for Planning and Development at the commission’s Islamabad headquarters by 11 AM on Monday, July 27. The commission has said Pakistan’s workforce remains highly capable and that partnering with established training institutes is central to ensuring the country can meet international labour market requirements while aligning domestic certifications with global standards.
The Country of Destination Program forms part of a broader push by the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission to formalise and expand overseas employment pathways for Pakistani youth, building on its existing Prime Minister’s Youth Skill Development Program, which has already trained hundreds of thousands of young Pakistanis across conventional and high tech trades. With more than 800,000 young people already registered on the government’s Digital Youth Hub platform, the commission’s latest call for training institute partnerships signals an effort to scale up the pipeline connecting skilled Pakistani workers with structured, destination specific job opportunities in some of the world’s largest labour importing markets.
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