The Punjab government has launched a drive to train around 90,000 students by 2029 under the Improving Workforce Readiness in Punjab Project, a six year initiative aimed at aligning technical education with labour market demand. The project seeks to upgrade training institutions, introduce industry driven courses, and produce a skilled workforce across eight priority sectors of the provincial economy.
The initiative, which began in 2023 and runs through 2029, aims to bridge the gap between technical and vocational education and industry needs by developing training programmes based on a comprehensive skills mapping study. A central component of the project is the transformation of 19 technical and vocational institutes into Centers of Excellence, comprising 16 institutes operated by the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority and three managed by the Punjab Vocational Training Council.
The upgraded institutes will deliver specialised, market oriented training across eight high growth sectors identified as critical drivers of Punjab’s economic expansion and employment generation, namely automotive, information and communication technology, tourism, food processing, textile, construction, healthcare, and light engineering. The project aims to equip nearly 90,000 students with practical, industry relevant skills by replacing conventional classroom based instruction with competency based training designed to directly address employer requirements and improve graduates’ prospects for sustainable employment.
Alongside these institutional reforms, the initiative includes modernising the Technical and Vocational Education and Training management system and strengthening the province’s Labour Market Information System, intended to improve workforce planning, generate more reliable labour market data, and support evidence based policymaking. An enhanced information system of this kind is expected to help policymakers, training providers, and industry leaders identify existing and emerging skills shortages, allowing technical institutes to update curricula on an ongoing basis rather than relying on periodic, static reviews.
The project is being supported by the Asian Development Bank, with Punjab’s technical and vocational training sector representing close to half of all such institutes and enrolments across Pakistan, reflecting its scale relative to other provinces. Given the continued expansion of Punjab’s industrial and services sectors, officials believe the workforce readiness project will help close persistent skills gaps, improve youth employability, strengthen technical education more broadly, and support the province’s long term economic competitiveness through a more productive and better prepared workforce entering high demand sectors such as information technology, construction, textiles, healthcare, and food processing.
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