PM announces 170,000 scholarships for youth

Islamabad:Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday announced 170,000 skill-based scholarships for young people.

In a recorded video message, the premier said the youth mostly wanted the government or salaried jobs but how many people the government could even recruit. He said the government was bringing in a better programme for young people so that they could start own businesses and entrepreneurial projects.

"The programme has two parts: skills-based education and loans for businesses." PM Imran Khan said the government wanted more people to get skills-based education and for that, 170,000 scholarships would be given away.

He said 50,000 scholarships would be for high-end skills such as coding and artificial intelligence. "You [youth] can do six-month courses and then get jobs you didn't even think was possible for you," he said.

The premier said if young people had a business idea, then they would be given loans under the ‘Kamyab Jawan programme’. He said the government had allocated Rs100 billion for the youth initiative and those loans would be provided on merit. "We eventually want to increase the sum so that we can reach more young people and generate employment opportunities for them," he said.