Peshawar: As an important step towards skills development and employment of youth of the province, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB) and Al-Khidmat Foundation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (AKF KP Region) to leverage the strengths and resources of both the parties in order to promote and develop digital skills initiatives in the province.
An MoU signing ceremony to this effect, was held here at Chief Minister’s House Peshawar on Thursday with caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Justice (R) Syed Arshad Hussain Shah as chief guest. Provincial Caretaker Minister for ST&IT Dr. Najeeb Ullah, Vice Chancellor IM Sciences Dr. Usman Ghani, Managing Director KPITB Dr. Ali Mehmood, concerned authorities of Alkhidmat Foundation and other relevant high ups attended the ceremony. The Memorandum of Understanding has formally been established to foster a collaborative partnership between KPITB and AKF KP Region, focusing on the empowerment and development of digital skills in the province, through which, 0.3 million youth from across the province would be imparted with mid and advanced levels digital skills courses under “Bano Qabil” program of Alkhidmat Foundation. The proposed courses for this purpose include; Office Automation, Art of Crafting, Graphic Designing, Motion Graphic, Amazon, E-commerce Evolution, Sales and Lead Generation, Digital Marketing and Freelancing, Mobile App Development, Web Development, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security Fundamentals and Data Sciences.
Addressing the ceremony, Caretaker Chief Minister said that youth of this province is highly talented; we need just to take practical steps in order to effectively utilize their untapped potentials adding that the caretaker provincial government has chalked out Human Capital Export Strategy, under which youth of the province would be equipped with market-based digital skills through collaborative partnership with the relevant departments and institutions. “The Memorandum of Understanding between KPITB and AKF is also a part of those efforts”, he remarked and added that significant increase in the trained and skilled manpower is the need of hour; it can play an effective role in steering the country out of current financial crunches. He made it clear that, Human Resource Export Strategy has been devised with the target to train up to five lac youth during the next one year, and they would be sent abroad for employment. The chief minister also urged upon private sector institutions and authorities to extend their support to the provincial government for this national cause adding that the role of Al-khidmat Foundation in this regard is commendable. He hoped that the Memorandum of Understanding between Al-Khidmat Foundation and KPITB would significantly help to meet the requirements of digital skills in the province. The chief minister has underlined the need to initiate implementation of this MoU without any delay, and directed the authorities concerned to take necessary steps for this purpose.
