10,000 BISP’ Beneficiaries To Get Skill-based Training And Employment

ISLAMABAD, Oct 2 (Muzaffargarh.City – 02nd Oct, 2017 ) : Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and Punjab Youth Workforce Development Project (PYWD) of USAID will provide skill-based training to 10,000 beneficiaries (35 percent women) and place them on jobs through a joint venture.

As per agreement between the both projects, BISP will facilitate the PYWD Project to identify, screen and select marginalized youth from BISP database of the beneficiary families to identify the deserving beneficiary, provide them skill based training and ensure their placement in the market, said a BISP official.

PYWD will target a total of 10,000 (young women at least 35 percent; young men percent) having priority to beneficiaries of the BISP and invest an estimated 400 million in their skill training and job placements.

The project will focus the key interventions including community engagement, institutional capacity building and access to workforce education and training and help the beneficiaries start their businesses by providing them tool kits and microfinance support.

Under Self-Employment Entrepreneurship Support, 3,500 beneficiaries, preferably women, would be provided with toolkits and 1,000 with microfinance. Under Job Placement through Apprenticeship Programem, 3,000 beneficiaries would be placed with industry, 1,500 with informal sector and 1,000 with career counseling services.

The Project would also help improve capacity of 22 TVET sector government institutes, the official said. The PYWD is a three-year project which aims to train and provide employment opportunities for youth in Multan, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalpur districts in South Punjab.

This collaboration of BISP and USAID-PYWD Project will help achieve the Federal government’s goal of taking the households out of poverty by linking them to the complementary initiatives that promote economic self-sufficiency through the transfer of employability and entrepreneurial skills, and linking individuals to markets and to strengthen the Prime Minister’s Youth Loan Initiative.

The BISP team is directed to provide data to USAID-PYWD Project timely in the four districts to achieve the best possible results for the betterment of the poorest of the poor, the official added.

BISP is a social safety net that endeavours to tackle poverty through multi-pronged strategy. It not only assists in poverty management but also works to graduate its beneficiaries out of poverty through the cooperation of other government and non-government organisations working in the field. APP/sn/anm