LAHORE: A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau Punjab and the National Youth Organization of Pakistan to provide children with education, skills and opportunities for a dignified future, under the vision of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
Chairperson Sarah Ahmad said that in line with the Chief Minister’s vision, providing children with protection alongside education, skills, self-reliance and opportunities for a bright future was the bureau’s priority.
Director General Rao Nadeem Akhtar, Director Programme Faisal Abbas, Director Administration Kashif Nawaz and other officers attended the signing ceremony.
Sarah Ahmad said that under the memorandum, children and adolescents under the care of the Child Protection Bureau will be provided vocational training in various fields.
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Children will be trained in fashion design, textile design, stitching, fine arts, pattern making and loom weaving, she said, while market-relevant skills will be taught to children under the National Youth Organization’s EIFA project.
The trade selection is notably weighted towards textiles and apparel — the sector in which Punjab’s industrial base is deepest and in which entry-level employment is most readily available. Pattern making and loom weaving in particular are production-floor skills with direct application in the province’s garment and textile manufacturing clusters.
Sarah Ahmad said vocational training would help make children capable of dignified employment and self-reliance in the future.
She said that with the cooperation of the Child Protection Bureau and the National Youth Organization of Pakistan, children’s social inclusion, community development and capacity would be enhanced.
Sarah Ahmad said that awareness and training programmes relating to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals would also be held under the memorandum.
Children and adolescents completing the training will be issued certificates, she said, and efforts will be made to provide opportunities at the international level.
Certification carries particular weight for this cohort. Children in institutional care frequently leave the system without formal educational credentials, which restricts them at the point of entry to any regulated employment. A recognised skills certificate provides an alternative credential that an employer can assess.
The Child Protection and Welfare Bureau operates under the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2004, with responsibility for the rescue, protection, rehabilitation and reintegration of destitute and neglected children, including those found begging, engaged in hazardous labour or living on the street.
The transition point out of institutional care is the most difficult part of that mandate. A child protected and educated within the system but discharged without employable skills or a support network faces a high risk of returning to the circumstances from which they were removed.
Vocational programming is directed precisely at that transition, and its effectiveness will depend on whether the certification translates into placements rather than remaining a training completion record.
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