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ACT I OF 2018 ACT I OF 2018 APPRENTICESHIP ACT, 2018 An Act to make provisions for promoting, developing and regulating systematic apprenticeship programmes in the establishments for securing certain minimum standards of skill [Gazette of Pakistan Extraordinary, Part I, 4th January, 2018] No. F. 9(25)/2017-Legis, dated 2-1-2018.---The following Act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) received the assent of the President on 29th December, 2017 and is hereby published for general information:- WHEREAS it is expedient to make provisions for promoting, developing and regulating systematic apprenticeship programmes in the establishments and for securing certain minimum standards of skill and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto; 2. Definitions.---In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,- (a) "apprentice" means a person who is undergoing into a trade, graduate or technician apprenticeship training, hold a technical vocational qualification, diploma or a degree from a recognized institution, in pursuance of a contract of apprenticeship including those in informal sector but shall not be treated as worker or any class of workers other than trainee; (b) "apprenticeship" means a system of training which combines practical training in an establishment and theoretical training in a registered institute in pursuance of a contract of apprenticeship; (c) "apprenticeship fund" means the fund established under section 6; (d) "authority" means the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission established under the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission Act, 2011 (XV of 2011); (e) "Board" means a Trade Testing Board or Board of Technical Education or any other body set up by the Federal Government for conducting assessment, testing and certification in respect of apprentices; (f) "competent authority" means such officer not below the rank of BPS-20 of the Federal Government as the authority may, by notification in official Gazette, appoint to be a competent authority for the purposes of this Act; (g) "designated trade" means any trade or occupation or any subject, field in engineering, technology, service, vocation or management; (h) "employer" means any person who employs another person in an establishment, including an employer who has an ultimate control over the affairs of an establishment or is responsible to its owner for those affairs; (i) "establishment" means an industrial, commercial, business, mining, exploration, services or any other organization including those in informal sector as the competent authority may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify; (j) "informal apprenticeship" means an informal system of training in which apprentices or workers are being trained and gaining skills for a designated trade at an establishment; (k) "National Vocational Qualification Framework" or "NVQF" means the National Vocational Qualification Framework set up by the authority to determine, define and manage technical and vocational qualifications including those for apprenticeship; (l) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules; (m) "rules" means rules made under this Act; and (n) "stipend" means a monthly emolument paid by an employer to apprentices during entire period of training at a rate of minimum of fifty percent of minimum wages prescribed by the Federal Government.