ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom plans to set up 280 skill centers in Pakistan focusing on technical and vocational training, reported state-owned media on Saturday, adding the project will be carried out in collaboration with Middle Eastern institutions to train individuals aspiring for jobs in places like the Gulf region.
Workforce export has long been a significant contributor to Pakistan’s economy, with the country heavily reliant on remittances sent by workers employed abroad, particularly in the Middle East. However, in recent years, Pakistani workers have faced challenges due to more exacting requirements of international job markets, making the training and upskilling of nationals a government priority.
The establishment of the skill centers became a focal point of discussions as a British delegation arrived in the country on a two-day visit and met with Pakistani officials working in the field of conventional and technical education.
“The delegation representatives said that around 280 skills centers will be established in Pakistan,” said the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency. “The candidates who successfully complete the training in these centers, they will be given a joint certificate by Pakistani, UK and Gulf universities.”
The report added that 80,000 jobs will be given to the successful candidates graduating from these skill centers in the first phase.
“These jobs would be offered in different Gulf countries, including [places like] Dubai, in the security, hospitality, construction, veterinary, nursing and police,” it said.
Pakistan’s Federal Secretary Education Mohiyuddin Wani and Chairperson of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission Gulmina Bilal highlighted the government’s priority to provide quality training to its nationals to give their best on any job around the world.
The delegation, which includes members of Britain’s House of Lords, said they were committed to promoting educational cooperation with Pakistan to empower its youth.
It will also visit Karachi to hold a meeting with Federal Minister for Education Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

QUETTA: Three paramilitary soldiers were killed and four were injured in Pakistan’s southwestern Kalat district on Saturday when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device, an official confirmed. 

The blast targeted a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle in the Askalko area in Kalat, located around 140 kilometers from Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta. The blast took place as the vehicle was passing through the area, an official confirmed. 

Balochistan, which shares a porous border with Iran and Afghanistan, has witnessed a decades-long insurgency launched by ethnic Baloch separatists who have accused successive governments of unfairly exploiting the mineral-rich province of its resources, a claim denied by the state.
 
“An improvised explosive device (IED) was planted along the road in Askalko which exploded when the security forces’ vehicle was passing through the area,” Bilal Shabir, the deputy commissioner of Kalat, told Arab News.

“Three paramilitary soldiers were killed and four wounded in the attack on security forces in Kalat district.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, suspicion is likely to fall on the separatist militant outfit Balochistan Liberation Army. The BLA has often targeted Pakistani security forces, ethnic Punjabi laborers and travelers in the southwestern province. 

In recent months, separatist outfits have stepped up attacks in Balochistan. Over 50 people including paramilitary soldiers were killed in widespread coordinated attacks by a Baloch separatist group in Kalat, Lasbela, Musakhail, Mastung and Kachi districts in the last week of August. 

In September, unidentified armed men stormed a residential compound in Balochistan’s Turbat, killing seven laborers from Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province.