Role of vocational and technical training in achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls: An empirical study of Sindh, Pakistan

Trained and technically equipped human resources are the nations’ assets and an essential requirement for sustainable national development. The skilled labor force required for the industrial revolution can never be undermined while it can be used as a powerful weapon for poverty reduction. Women presenting almost half of the world population can be economically empowered through vocational and technical training and the fifth sustainable development goal “achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls with disabilities” can be achieved through this training. Different vocational and technical training programs have been proven to produce technically skilled human resources in different developing countries. However, such programs also have the limitations of accommodating a high percent of trainees in jobs or self-employment. The study aimed to sort out the determinants of these training programs’ low success rates in Sindh province of Pakistan. A total of 128 surveys were filled from randomly selected women who have completed their trainings in the last two years. Data were analyzed through cross-tabulation analysis on SPSS and AMOS. It is used to establish the relationship between training trades and employability, age group and employability and income group of the beneficiaries’ households, and their employability after completing the different technical and vocational training pieces. Results showed that around 35% of the selected women were ever employed after getting the training while significant relationships among the variables also resulted. It has been proven that the importance of technical and vocational training programs cannot be falsified. However, proper selection criteria must be followed, and only severe and needy beneficiaries should be selected through proper assessment. Need assessments for the training programs should be carried out while efforts for achieving employment as an outcome of such training programs are mandatory.