ISLAMABAD, Aug 23 (APP): Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Youth Affairs Shaza Fatima Khawaja on Tuesday said that the work on Prime Minister Laptop Scheme is in progress, under which free laptops will be distributed among 100,000 youth of government universities and colleges purely on merit basis.
She expressed these views while addressing members of the Green Youth Movement of universities across Karachi at Dow University of Health Sciences Ojha Campus.
Addressing the event, she said that every year in Pakistan, 2 million new citizens need employment, but there is not enough space in the job market to accommodate all of them, while 30 percent of the graduates do not get a job. Therefore, the need is not to make the graduates as employers but to help them to become job providers so that they become self-entrepreneurs and provide employment to some people initially so that they can support their family and close ones.
Special Assistant Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that the government has started an internship program for undergraduate youth in public and private institutions at 12,000 rupees per month.
She said that as the children do not have experience after graduation, while the job givers ask for experience, so on one hand this program provides experience and on the other hand helps the students to bear the educational expenses.
Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that the number of young people in Pakistan’s total population is very high, adding, according to the 2017 census, the rate of 30-year-olds was 68 percent, while the number of youth between 15 to 29 years is 50 million and people under 15 years of age are 5 million.Thus the youth are a very large part of our population.
By using them properly, the country can be brought on the road of development, she said adding that, smartphones and laptops had opened the doors of the world to the youth.
Therefore, she said, there is a need to take advantage of their talents.
She said that thousands of dollars of scholarships for our youth are wasted every year because of the lack of awareness among people. The government is taking steps in this regard so that the youth could be involved in the scholarships being offered from all over the world.
During the Corona pandemic, most of the jobs have gone online, so it has also benefited our youth. Pakistan is the fourth largest country among freelance service providers in the world, its growth rate is 74% and these service providers are earning two billion dollars annually, she informed.
She said that “education makes a person responsible, we also need to make our population useful.Youth development centers were also being established”.
She went on saying that every year 2 million graduates are registered with the Higher Education Commission. Now, instead of Youth Development Center, we have established Youth Digital Portal, so that every youth who has a smartphone will be able to connect with each other. She said that 150 million youth under the age of 25 can now come to one platform through the digital portal.
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