ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: A total number of 20,984 trainees benefitted from the Prime Minister Youth Skills Development Programme, Phase-II during the period from August 2015 to February 2016.
While around 24,831 trainees were given skills-based training in different market-oriented trades during the year 2014-15 in the first phase, an official source told the state-run news agency.
This skilled labour force after getting training in 100 different trades is now contributing in the local and international markets for socio-economic growth of the country.
Prime Minister Youth Skills Development Programme is one of the six schemes initiated by the government for the uplift of youth which comprises a major chunk of the country’s total population.
Similarly, under Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loans Scheme, an amount of Rs 7102.49 million was disbursed so far among the youth through approving around 16,000 loans.
The mark-up rate for borrower is being lowered from eight to six percent a reduction of two percent while National Bank of Pakistan and First Women Bank Limited, seven other private banks have also joined this Programme.
Under Prime Minister’s Youth Training Programme, the government is placing 50,000 interns in different public and private organizations paying the stipend of Rs 12000 per month for a period of one year during the year 2015-16.
Under Prime Minister’s Interest Free Loan Scheme, an amount of Rs 3147.3 million has been disbursed among 1,49,763 households till March 2106.
Under this scheme, interest free loans of Rs 50,000 average size are being made available to both men and women from households with a score of up-to 40 on the Poverty Score Card (PSC) and with little or no access to banks or micro credit institutions.
While under the Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme for Students of Less Developed Area, a sum of Rs 5.0 billion has been released since its inception in 2012.
Higher Education Commission (HEC) has successfully paid around Rs 3.90 billion to 134,926 deserving students from less developed areas.
The government pays tuition fee for all students registered in Masters and Ph.D programs in HEC-approved public sector educational institutions who have domicile of less developed areas.
Similarly, under the Prime Minister’s Scheme for Provision of Laptops to Talented Students, HEC has distributed 100,000 laptops during Phase-I and 50,000 laptops will be distributed during Phase-II.