Citi Foundation, the charitable arm of global financial services provider Citigroup, has joined hands with Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) for funding vocational training of young women from PSDF target districts (Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh). The foundation has extended a grant worth USD 30,000 to PSDF for providing core, vocational and entrepreneurial training to sixty young women under PSDF’s third scheme, Skills for Market (SFM).
A distinctive feature of the scheme, SFM is to create linkages between rural female enterprises and product/ services markets. Training Service Providers (TSPs) which have been competitively selected under the scheme will be used for this purpose. The trainings will enable young rural women to engage in income generating activities, either by setting up an enterprise or expanding their access to market or getting wage employment. A distinguishing feature of the scheme is the inclusion of core skills – numeracy, literacy, communication, creativity and planning – in the tracing package.
The entrepreneurial training component will also impart skills in market analysis and access, business plan preparation, costing financial management, accessing financial services and negotiation skills. Vocational training component will include crafts, embellished garments, livestock management, tailoring etc depending upon the choice of each participant.
In order to mitigate the deprivation of the unemployed and marginalized youth of four districts of South Punjab and to raise income levels through a concrete strategy, Punjab government in collaboration with the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) has set up Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF). Punjab Skills Development Fund is a not-for-profit company established under the Companies Ordinance 1984 with an initial funding of 25 million pound sterling contributed equally by the Punjab government and DFID. The main purpose of PSDF is to fund vocational training for the poor and the vulnerable youth in the target districts so that they have better opportunities for income generation either through self-employment or wage employment.
More than ten thousand candidates have already completed their training under PSDF’s first scheme, Skills for Employment, started last year. PSDF has recently signed contracts of about Rs.one billion with 40 training service providers for providing training to twenty thousand individuals in more than ninety different trades under its second scheme, Skills for Job (SFJ). As Citi Bank Pakistan completes 50 years (1961-2011), the Citi Foundation has provided almost USD 200,000 to Pakistan over just the last year to invest in microfinance, financial asset building and vocational training. This is in addition to the USD 100,000 that the Foundation has provided for flood rehabilitation last year.