Impact of Vocational Education and Training (VETS) on Women Socio-Economic Empowerment a case Study of Sargodha Division

Author(s) : Noreen Akbar, Dr. Sadia Rafi, Dr. Mumtaz Ali

Abstract:

The study entitled, “Impact of Vocational Education and Training on Women’s Socio-economic empowerment” aimed at measuring social, economic and household empowerment of women through Vocational Education and Training from Sargodha division. In this quantitative study self-administered questionnaire was used as a tool of data collection and it consisted of 36 questions. Questionnaire was filled by 211 respondents who passed out the training course from Vocational Training Institutes (VTIs) in the years 2013 and 2014. For empirical analysis, Correlation and Regression was used to see the relationship between vocational education (dependent variable) and Socio – Economic empowerment (independent variable). Data from the sample showed that majority of the respondents considered that vocational education is very helpful to empower women. Majority of the respondents feel that the training course increased their employment opportunity. Improved standard of living, participation in daily activities, more confident in social relations, freedom of expression, freedom of mobility, participation in major decisions of family, consulted in purchasing household accessories and independent to attend family and friend’s functions were the major responses reported by the respondents. On the basis of the aforementioned findings, it is suggested that yet greater investments must be made for meeting the emerging demands of women empowerment and the network of VTIs should also be increased to remote areas where women are in greater need of empowerment.