LAHORE: The National College of Arts (NCA) organized a certificate distribution ceremony for trainees, funded by Punjab Skills Development Fund, at the Shakir Ali Auditorium, National College of Arts here. The chief guest of the ceremony was Minister for Labor & Human Resource, Government of the Punjab, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar. A total of 112 trainees belonging from various districts of the Punjab received their certificates. These trainees have been trained in six different employable trades by NCA. These trainings were funded by Punjab Skills Development Fund under its scheme, Skills for Employability. CEO PSDF Mr. Ali Sarfraz & Principal NCA Prof. Dr. Murtaza Jafri were also present at the occasion. These trainings were imparted in six courses - Ceramics Product Design, Furniture Design, Non Linear Editing Level-II, Photography, Prototype Development, Wood Work. “It gives me immense pleasure to be among the students who have been trained by the National College of Arts and learnt new skills,” Raja Ashfaq Sarwar said while addressing the successful students. He expressed his gratitude over the efforts by the Principal NCA for this initiative and said that he is delightful to see that the National College of Arts has taken a positive step by supporting Government of the Punjab’s efforts for promotion of vocational & technical skills in the province. He also appreciated PSDF’s efforts for providing funding to eligible trainees so that they can learn new skills that would enable them to augment their job prospects. He said that he is very optimistic that the successful students would be able to earn livelihood for their families after joining job market. CEO PSDF Ali Sarfraz congratulated the NCA management for being a training service provider for the PSDF scheme. He was of the opinion that national institutes such as NCA cay play an important role in promoting vocational education among people.  “I would like to stress over the point that the students should make genuine efforts to secure jobs in the job market so that they are able to play their role in the Punjab’s economy,” said Ali Sarfraz. In the perseverance to further effectuate its efforts for skills development, Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) launched the scheme, Skills for Employability, for residents of the 14 districts of the Punjab. For the scheme, contracts were awarded to 75 training service providers for training of 14,415 candidates. These contracts were awarded to a multitude of training service providers from both public and private sector to deliver quality training services. The scheme is a sequel of the Fund’s earlier scheme, Skills for Employability, which was launched in 2011. In the preceding round, more than 15,000 completed their trainings in numerous vocational trades. Punjab Skills development Fund (PSDF) is a section 42 company, established by the Government of the Punjab in partnership with the Department for International Development (DFID), UK. PSDF funds vocational training organisations to provide vocational and skills training to the poor and the vulnerable populations of the Punjab. Until now, PSDF has funded trainings of 110,935 men and women from its target districts of the Punjab under its various schemes for skills development.