National Training Ordinance, 1980

The National Training Ordinance, 1980 creates the institutional framework for regulating and promoting vocational training in Pakistan. It establishes a National Training Board at the federal level (Section 3) and allows each Provincial Government to set up a corresponding Provincial Training Board (Section 5). The National Board is chaired by the Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, with the Federal Secretary of that Ministry as Vice-Chairman, and includes representatives from the Planning Commission, the Ministries of Education, Finance, and Science and Technology, employer and worker representatives (including dedicated women's seats) from each province, and the chairmen of the Provincial Boards.

Section 4 gives the National Board wide-ranging functions: surveying labour-market needs, setting national training standards and trade-testing rules, preparing national training plans, recommending how training programmes should be financed, registering and licensing training institutions, and conducting trade tests to certify skilled workers — including those who picked up their skills informally rather than through a training institution. Section 5 gives Provincial Boards parallel, province-level responsibilities: forecasting provincial skilled-manpower needs, inspecting and registering training schemes, and preparing an annual provincial training plan.

Section 8 sets up a National Training Board Fund and Provincial Training Board Funds to finance these activities, and Section 9 requires the Boards' accounts to be audited by the Auditor-General. Section 10 makes Board staff public servants, and Section 11 gives officials indemnity for good-faith acts.

Section 13 is the enforcement provision: an establishment or institution that fails to comply with a lawful directive from the National or Provincial Board can be fined up to ten thousand rupees, plus a further fine of up to two hundred rupees for every day the non-compliance continues after conviction. Section 14 requires that prosecutions can only be brought on a complaint from a Board (or its authorised officer) and must be tried by at least a Magistrate of the first class. Section 15 lets the government exempt particular establishments from the law, and Section 16 lets the National Board make regulations to implement the Ordinance.

This 1980 Ordinance has been substantially amended, notably by an amending Ordinance in 2002 which added references to bodies like the Skill Development Council and the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) and revised National Board membership and functions — so the current institutional landscape it describes may differ further from the original text, and readers should check current provincial vocational-training arrangements, especially given that labour and training matters have since been substantially devolved to the provinces.