LAHORE - The Punjab government has decided to set up youth counselling centres across the province to give academic counselling to students. A web portal will be set up to facilitate students. The head office of counselling centres will be set up in Lahore and sub-offices will be set up at various universities across the province. The centres would be set up by the Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) and the Punjab Higher Education Department to guide students about academic disciplines. Provincial Higher Education Minister Raja Yassir Humayun on Thursday said that keeping in view the advancement in academics the PTI government has decided to set up counselling centres, which would help students get themselves enrolled in degrees, which are in demand at the industrial level. He was of the view that a large number of Pakistani youth is pursuing degrees, which are no more in demand in the industry. He said the counselling centres would help students find suitable degrees as well as jobs after completion of their degrees. “Students will be able to solve their problems at the counselling centres. Scholarships and funding information will be posted on the portal,” he said. Sources said the higher education minister wanted to implement the counselling centres project from day one and he had been finalising project details for the last couple of months. A meeting was held yesterday at the Civil Secretariat to finalise arrangements for the youth counselling centres in Punjab. It was attended by the Punjab higher education minister, Additional Secretary Shahid Farrukh, Deputy Secretary Muhammad Hassan Lali and PEEF CEO Dr Kamran Shams. CONFERENCE: The Minhaj University’s Department of Library and Information Sciences, in collaboration with the Pakistan Librarians Welfare Association (PLWO), organised a two-day conference here yesterday. Punjab Information Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal said while speaking at the conference, “In Pakistan, the information technology sector has yet to develop while the present government, on the pattern of ease of doing business, is coming up with strategies to uplift this sector.”
Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfaraz, minister of higher education, said: “It is vital to promote research in an educational system and it is possible only by upgrading libraries with technologies.”
Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Fazal Khalid said PHEC is exploring all ventures to give a blend of modern knowledge to the private sector by creating new forums and a digital revolution.
MUL VC Dr Muhammad Aslam Ghauri hoped the conference would be university’s initiative of a hallmark milestone in the sphere of library and information sciences.
A panel discussion was also held on ‘Bridging the Gaps between Theory and Practice’ in which panellists Dr Khalid Mahmoud (Punjab University), Prof Dr Rubina Bhatti (Islamia University Bahawalpur), Dr Muhammad Tariq (Comsats Lahore), Dr Haroon Idrees (University of Sargodha) and Syed Ghayour Hussain (National Library Pakistan DG) spoke on the occasion.