Presiding over a meeting about a plan to send skilled manpower abroad from Punjab, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday set a target of providing training and job placement to 100,000 youths.

She sought a comprehensive plan to send skilled manpower abroad and issued directive to provide business cards and loans to skilled youths on a priority basis.

It was decided that a Skills on Wheel project would be launched for the youth of remote areas in collaboration with the private sector.

The chief minister also approved several other schemes, including a ‘plug and play’ call centre launching system.

In the first phase, 5,000 youth will be imparted call centre training. After six weeks of training, the youth will be able to get jobs of about Rs100,000 per month. A proposal to issue a skills card was also reviewed in the meeting.

According to officials, 480 women will be trained at the Garment Training Institute in the Quaid-i-Azam Business Park. Women receiving the training are provided the pick and drop facility besides Rs20,000 per month. Job placement of the students in large textile groups will also be provided.

Punjab Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Secretary Nadir Chattha said all skill development institutions had been brought under the department.

International IT certification of 4,000 youth has been completed under the CM Skilled Punjab Initiative. The chief minister called for increasing the number of participants of international certification courses to 10,000.

It was decided to introduce a six-month free hospitality training in collaboration with a British institution. Job placement of the trained youths will also be arranged.

Training of 1,600 transgender persons has been completed under a skills development programme.

Those undergoing textile, makeup and backstage production training under the programme are being paid Rs8,000 per month. A ‘Tabeer’ job placement abroad programme for skilled youth is also under way.

The participants were informed that 27,000 applications had been received for a digital programme for rural women who would be provided free desktop computers along with English language and information technology training.

An integrated dashboard of the Punjab Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department will be activated by mid-April.

The CM said, “Training and job market will be provided to include the youth in the journey of development. It will be possible to tread on the path of prosperity only by promoting skills among the talented youth. The skilled youth are the bright future of Pakistan.”

She said, “The Punjab government will provide end-to-end support for the training and job placement of the skilled youth.”

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has ordered immediate withdrawal of an increase in the fare of the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) double-decker bus service.

Following her directive, the notification regarding the fare hike was retracted, restoring the previous ticket prices.

The fare for the Sightseeing Lahore Bus Service had been raised to Rs500 from Rs200, while an increase, from Rs5,000 to Rs20,000 had been proposed for corporate sector bookings, educational institutions and commercial activities.

Expressing displeasure over the decision, the CM directed TDCP officials to reverse the fare hike, emphasising that the bus service operates on three routes to promote tourism in Lahore and should remain affordable.