From Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR As an important step to ensure employability of young graduates, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has accorded approval to launch a Digital Skills Training Program. Under the initiative, initially, 100,000 young graduates of different categories would be imparted Advanced Digital Training through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board. This approval was accorded in a meeting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board held here on Wednesday with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair. Members provincial cabinet Atif Khan and Barester Muhammad Ali Saif, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Amjad Ali Khan, Secretary Science & Technology and information technology Matiullah Khan, Secretary Information Arshad Khan, Managing Director KP IT Board Ali Mahmoud and other concerned high ups attended the meeting. Briefing about various aspects of the initiative, the forum was informed that the Digital Skills Training Program would be implemented with an estimated cost of Rs. 5 billion under which different digital skills courses of three to six months durations would be arranged for graduates. It was further informed that under the program, youth would be imparted digital training in accordance with the needs of local and international markets in the different sectors of Information and Communication Technology to enhance their employability in the online markets. Besides offering Employment Opportunities, Scholarships and Nano Degrees would be awarded to the successful candidates. Briefing about the three different levels of the program, it was told that under the Intermediate Level Digital Skills, 60 thousand youth would be trained whereas 20 thousand youth would get training under advanced level Digital Skills. Similarly, rest of the youth would be imparted training courses in the third level of the program named Nano degree. Under the Intermediate Level Digital Skills, training in Web Development, Graphic Designing, Animation, Digital Marketing and E-Commerce would be imported whereas under the Advance Level Digital Skills, youth would be trained in Block Chain, Data Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Networking, Cyber Security, Business Intelligence and Cloud Computing. Briefing about the Youth Employment Program, the participants were informed that 13,700 youth (29% female and 71% male) have been trained under Medium Level Digital Skills. Similarly, more than 1600 youth (15% female and 85% male) have been trained under advance digital skills. Addressing the participants, the chief minister said that empowering youth by providing them employment opportunities was the sole purpose of this program and added that within a short span of six-month time, one lac skilled main power would be prepared in the province. He said that it was one of the priorities of his government to make this province a hub of digital skilled work force through the effective use of information and communication technology. He said that his government was taking concrete steps to impart advance digital skills to the graduates to enhance their employ abilities in the national and international online markets.
