Daily Times

Human Resource Development (HRD) lays the foundation of a developed and progressive society. It is an important factor in economic growth and manpower development is the cornerstone of the development process. Human Resource Development, especially through Education and Technical and Vocational Training, can determine the future of the country. A significant form of human capital is considered to be acquiring skills and competencies based on basic education and skills development.

Pakistan is among the top ten states with the largest labour force in the world. Of an estimated total of 71.76 million workers, 67.25 per cent are employed and 4.5 per cent unemployed, with young women comprising most of the unemployed (PES 2012-22, Page 225). This huge labour force could be made beneficial with proper investment in Human Resource Development and paying attention to the emerging trends in the labour markets. Since the world has become a global village, there are certain challenges to running organisations on international standards and better HRD is the only solution to overcome those menace. The undertakings of both private and public sector organisations in Pakistan are increasingly becoming complex day by day in wake of frequent changes in the world economy, information technology, and socio-political milieu. With almost two-thirds of the children of school-going age still out of school, the country is ranked among the lowest states in 193 UN member states. Generally, there are two major streams in Pakistan’s education system. One is the general education system, which is comprised of primary (1st to 5th class), middle/elementary (6th to 8th class), secondary (9th and 10th class), higher secondary (11th and 12th class) and higher education. The second stream is technical and vocational education for the development of a skilled workforce and middle-level technicians, which is comprised of more or less three (3) years of education after the secondary level (class 10th). Furthermore, different durations (from 6 to 8 months) of certificate courses in vocational training are also offered after class 8th or 10th in all technological fields for both girls and boys nationwide

Apart from the very low expenditure on education in Pakistan, there is also a disconnect between mainstream education and vocational training. There were policy failures behind this. Successive governments at the Federal and Provincial levels failed to integrate both streams of education through Education Policies, and allocations of resources were also skewed in favour of mainstream education.

Germany is considered one of the leading success stories for transforming its labour into a technically skilled workforce with differentiated and specialized skill-set.

A commonly cited reason is the social stigma attached to vocational and technical training vis-à-vis mainstream education. Socio-cultural factors were a strong reason for not accepting vocational and technical education as a respectable source of earning. In rural areas, many parents aspired to send their kids to schools and colleges imparting mainstream education. The thinking is that this type of education could provide a more respectable job as compared to any skilled profession. A related issue was the parallel systems and syllabi for the mainstream and vocational education prevailing in the country. The curricula were outdated. The difference in public and private education systems was a further complication. Economic factors also influenced the choice of education – those with better resources opting for the private sector, relatively of higher quality as opposed to the public sector.

Taking international case studies into consideration, two success stories are worth mentioning in this regard. These are Germany, a developed economy, and China, a successful developing economy.

Germany is considered one of the leading success stories for transforming its labour into a technically skilled workforce with differentiated and specialized skill-set for a range of vocational trades. It is ranked among the four best education and the seven best healthcare systems in the world. The consistent progressive investment in human capital has resulted in the increasingly high trend of acquiring relevant technical and vocational skills responsive to the local industry and the service sector’s needs. The higher learning curve on the technical skill matrix by average German labour has helped the country to rank as the leading and strongest economy with a USD 5.3 trillion GDP and USD 63, 835 per capita income (PPP 2022).

Germany’s success largely owes to its dynamic and robust education system. Formal schooling is formally as well as informally linked with the parallel streams of technical and vocational training and apprenticeships. The children 2-6 years of age are raised at home or some daycare activity centres. They remain the responsibility of their parents, who are required to fund the children’s care and learning up to the age of 6. Later the children are admitted to schools at the age of six. These schools are recognized as elementary schools and primarily exist in the public sector. Up to grade 4 standardized basic education is imparted in these schools. Upon completion of grade 4 either the students are allowed to continue the formal education up to grade 12 in the public schools which are known as Gymnasium. Up along the scale, the students are provided with the opportunity to join the vocational stream, after grade 4, grade 9, and grade 10. Whereas, the students are put for a 1-3 years apprenticeship with the listed companies, after grade 12. However, they are free to bypass the apprenticeship, paid by or partially funded by the government, and move on to admission to universities. During the apprenticeship, the young person is a part-time salaried employee of the institution, bank, physician or attorney’s office.

Fourth grade (or sixth, depending on the state) is often quite stressful for students of lower performance and their families. Many feel tremendous pressure when trying to achieve placement in Gymnasium, or at least when attempting to avoid placement in Hauptschule, a secondary school starting after four years of elementary schooling. The German education system, hence, provides at least formal institutional horizontal linkages with the vocational training stream. This formal synchronization makes the German education system supportive of its industrialized technical know-how, at the various levels of the skill matrix- an inevitable pre-requisite for the industrial economy.

(To be Continued)

The writer was formerly associated with APS Bahawalpur and can be reached at ghaniausman786@gmail.com