Islamabad For the first time in Pakistan, a group of representatives from the provincial Technical and Vocational Training Authorities (TEVTA) and fashion, textile, hospitality and beauty industry representatives, including Shaiyanne Malik and Musarrat Misbah, are being trained in Competency Based Training (CBT) Approach.

The initiative is part of an ILO project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency ‘Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment’. Competency-based training is not on the time spent in the classroom or the amount of curriculum covered, but the actual demonstration of competency, “You can’t learn to drive a tractor by reading a book,” as one of the participants expressed.

Draft competency standards were developed in a workshop earlier this year, and in this workshop the process of industry endorsement and curriculum design will be explained. Each workshop is followed by a period of fieldwork where participants are required to apply their skills to actually develop competency standards and curricula.

International expert, Trevor Riordan, the ILO’s senior training policy specialist, is conducting the workshop. Riordan has been involved in the development of competency-based approaches to training in many countries, including the development of Regional Model Competency Standards for Asia and the Pacific.

Riordan said, “Pakistan is now moving towards the cutting edge of training and developing its own approach to developing the competency of its workforce. While many developed countries have used competency-based approaches to training for many years, it is relatively new in developing countries.

Pakistan is leading many developing countries in this respect. Several industry-based competency standards, equivalent to anything available at the international level, have been developed by a group of Pakistani experts assisted by the ILO.

National Project Coordinator Farida Khan hoped that other organisations involved in training, from the public, private or development sectors would be able to build on the work being done by the ILO and use the materials and expertise being developed under this project.

The workshop will be followed by the development of courses and curricula for skills that are in high demand and likely to lead to decent employment. The courses will be piloted in selected institutes around the country and the national pool of expertise being developed through this process will be used to roll out the next steps. the news

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