For the first time in Pakistan, ILO is bringing the leaders in fashion, textiles, hospitality and beauty industry and representatives from the four provincial Technical and Vocational Training Authorities (TEVTA) to promote Competency Based Training (CBT). Ace beautician Musarrat Misbah and prominent fashion designer Shaiyanne Malik are participating and will bring industry expertise to the four days workshop. ILO’s Senior Training Policy Specialist Mr Trevor Riordan is the lead trainer and designer of the “Training Workshop on Competency Based Curricula Developed” being held from 7-10 December 2011 in Lahore. This initiative is part of an ILO project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, ‘Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment’.

This workshop aims to seek industry endorsement of the draft competency standards developed by the ILO and the curriculum design will be explained. Each workshop is followed by a period of field work where participants are required to apply their skills to actually develop competency standards and curricula. Competency based training focuses on the skills and knowledge that industry expects its potential employees to possess. It focuses on actual demonstration of competency and not on the time spent in the classroom. “You can’t learn to drive a tractor by reading a book”, as one of the participants expressed.

ILO’s Senior Training Policy Specialist Mr Trevor Riordan said that “Pakistan is now moving towards cutting edge training approaches including competencies development. 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 with the ILO’s technical assistance. This workshop is another step in the process to developing Pakistani expertise is formulating a comprehensive competency based training and assessment system. For the women and men of Pakistan, this will mean that training is directly related to the actual work which takes place in industry.”

While emphasizing on the importance of CBT and knowledge sharing for training reforms, Frida Khan, National Project Coordinator of the ILO GE4DE project said, “Organisations involved in training would be able to build on the work being done by the ILO and use the materials and expertise being developed under this project, which is in line with the National Skills Strategy”.

For further information please contact

Mr. Muhammad Saifullah Chaudhry, Senior Programme Officer
Tel.: +92 51 2276456-8, Ext 235
Email