Career path

Sir: A great deal of discussion takes place about the issue that students should opt for those subjects in which they have an interest and aptitude. Nowadays, our youth is facing a serious unemployment problem. People with professional degrees from reputed institutions of the country are roaming around in search of jobs and some of them fail to get a job even for years. The common perception among parents and high school students is that attending a reputed professional institution guarantees a job. In fact, it is not always true. One of the areas that both parents and students neglect while choosing a career is the apprenticeship programme offered by many government and private organizations, mainly in technical trades like mechanical, electrical and metallurgical.

The main advantage is that employment rates of these programmes are quite high. Graduate apprentices will be most probably offered a job in the same organisation. In addition, they would be given an appropriate stipend so that they can support themselves while they complete the programme. In most technical institutions in Pakistan, emphasis is given to theoretical concepts and less importance is given to practical aspects of the trade or technology. These apprenticeship programmes provide an opportunity to go through rigorous practical exposure. Hence, it is a sort of study-cum-practical experience. It would be unjust to not to discuss the pros and cons of these programmes as compared to professional education. As compared to graduate engineers, apprentices will probably be hired on lower ranks and with lower salaries. If they want to go to the top of the ladder of their careers, it will probably take a relatively longer time.
In spite of technical exposure, at the end of the day they would probably be weaker in theoretical concepts of the trade as compared to a graduate engineer. Despite all these issues, apprenticeship programmes have an edge over graduate engineering programmes of having higher employability ratio. The government and private organisations should also pay more attention to the apprenticeship programme as it is not only a way for them to get a valuable and highly committed workforce but it is also a step towards the betterment of society as a whole.
SYED SARMAD SHAMIM
Karachi