“Meeting of Human Resource Managers, Administrators, Training Managers, Thought Leaders, Peers and Experts”

With the aim to provide an interaction platform for academia-industry liaison in order to strengthen the framework for developing and disbursing capacity building exercises by NED University catering the needs of the industry and generating human capacity able to cope with the issues of national importance, NED Academy successfully organized a Get-Together Event/ Meeting inviting representatives - particularly HR Managers, Training Managers, Administrators, Thought Leaders, Peers and Experts - from key industry organizations in Karachi from various sectors. The Event was well received and witnessed healthy participation from key industry representatives.

In total, 41 guests of public and private sector organizations graced the event. These included Training and HR Managers/ Officers, Planning Managers, CEOs, Training Acquisition Managers, Senior Engineers, Project Managers, Country Managers, Admin Managers and the like. Following key organizations participated in the event: Dewan Cement Ltd., Pakistan Petroleum Ltd., Atlas Battery Ltd., National Refinery Ltd., Matco Foods, Digri Sugar Mills, IFFCO Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Hinopak Motors, Alkaram Textile Mills (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan Gem & Jewellery Development Corporation, Midas Safety Pakistan, Artistic Milliners (Pvt.) Ltd., Prime Chemicals Corporation, PSO, SSGC, Muhammad Shafi Tanneries (Pvt.) Ltd., Liberty Mills Limited, NESPAK, Alsons Industries (Pvt.) Ltd., Papillon International, S. Zia ul Haq & Sons, Nexus Corporation, Allied Eng. & Services, Caterpillar Rental Division, Allied Rental Mudarba, ICCBS – KU, Novatax Plant Ltd., Procon Engineer, Global Media Links, PAF KIET, Sania Maskatiya, T & P Coats Pakistan.

Following the recitation from the Holy Quran, the event commenced with a Welcome Note by Prof. Rizwan U. Farooqui, Director General, NED Academy. This was followed by a talk from the Chief Guest, Prof. Dr. Saad A. Qazi, Dean, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, wherein he emphasized upon the need to adopt the paradigm shift of traditional trainings to customized capacity building exercises utilizing the recent technological advancements in training assessment as well as disbursement. Subsequent to this, Director General, NED Academy presented an outline of the portfolio of NED Academy and the Centres / Organizations working under the umbrella of / in collaboration with NED Academy for industry capacity building via offering market oriented courses. Prof. Rizwan Farooqui also highlighted that NED Academy, which was traditionally focused on offering short courses, has now been moving towards Certification Programmes, International Certification Preparation, Postgraduate Diploma Programmes, Hands-on Trainings, Para Engineering Trainings, Soft Skills Development, Techno-Managerial Skillset Enhancement, Leadership Development, Entrepreneurship, etc. The full profile of courses in the aforesaid domain currently in the offering was also presented along with the upcoming stream of announced and in-planning courses/ programmes. Prof. Farooqui repeatedly emphasized on close one-to-one interaction between NED Academy and Industrial Organizations in order to develop and disburse customized corporate trainings suited to the advancement needs of the industry. Faculty strength of the NED University was also highlighted during the talk in order to identify key areas of capacity building consistent to the profile of the University as well as in line with meeting the needs of the industry.

The last part of the Event was an Open Forum for discussion on avenues of common interest. Participants showed keen interest in developing customized training programmes for their organizational human assets development; one-to-one discussion was also their point of interest in order to more responsively cater their needs. An appreciable amount of time for discussion/ QA was allocated so to fulfill the event key objective of stronger liaison; a very health interactive session was conducted as a result. Prof. Farooqui amply responded to all queries; suggestions for improved liaison were well noted for future action.

The event ended with a note of thanks by Director General, NED Academy. Networking hi-tea was used to discuss opportunities for exchange and follow ups were tied up for future collaborations / coordination.