Maryam Nawaz Sets Ambitious Target: Skills Training for 1 Million Punjab Youth in Three Years
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has set an ambitious new target of providing skills training to one million young people across the province over the next three years, signalling a major expansion of the province’s technical and vocational education drive.
The target was announced at a review meeting in Lahore, where the chief minister approved a series of new initiatives to expand technical and vocational training opportunities, according to Business Recorder’s report on 2 November 2026, corroborated by reporting in The News.
What the new target means
The one-million figure is not an upgrade of an existing plan but a fresh target set at the meeting, with new initiatives attached. The chief minister reviewed the performance of the province’s flagship Skilled Youth Programme, which officials say has already trained more than 180,000 young people in technical trades, and directed that training capacity be scaled up sharply to hit the new three-year goal.
The emphasis is on practical, market-aligned trades. The new initiatives approved at the meeting are designed to widen the province’s network of technical and vocational training institutes and to align courses more closely with the skills employers are actually looking for — both in Pakistan and in overseas labour markets.
From training to pay cheques: the employment pipeline
Officials told the meeting that the skills drive is already translating into jobs. More than 75,000 trained youth have reportedly found employment across Pakistan, while 15,000 others have secured jobs abroad through the programme’s international placement efforts. The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA), the Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) and the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) are the main delivery channels.
To support graduates in turning skills into income, the province has also moved on employment facilitation. The ‘Parwaz Card’ scheme offers eligible trained youth up to Rs300,000 in support, while a Garments City project in Sheikhupura has trained 1,000 young people in garment trades. International demand is also being courted: Saudi Arabia has reportedly requested 45,000 skilled Pakistani workers, and the Punjab government is positioning its trained youth to meet such requests.
Separate from the PIVOT skills pillar
Readers should not confuse the new one-million target with the skills component of the PIVOT economic plan, launched on 30 October. That programme separately aims to train 402,060 people in industry-aligned skills over the same three-year window (2026–29). The new one-million figure comes from a distinct review meeting and sits alongside, not inside, the PIVOT framework — an indication that skills development is now running on multiple parallel tracks in Punjab.
Why it matters for Punjab’s economy
The skills push is central to how the Punjab government sees its economic future. With the province aiming to expand exports under the PIVOT plan and to supply skilled workers to international markets, training is being treated as economic infrastructure rather than a welfare add-on. The province has also recorded a reported 21 per cent increase in technical training compared to the previous five years.
The test, as always, will be execution. Targets of this scale depend on training quality, honest placement numbers and courses that match real demand. But the direction is clear: for the next three years, Punjab intends to train more young people than it ever has before — and the new one-million target is now the headline number against which the effort will be judged.
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