Skills development is crucial in response to global trends like automation, climate action, digitalization, and shrinking labour force. Education needs to adapt to support economic growth and individual self-sufficiency. This requires updating the curriculum, revising textbooks, retraining instructors, and acknowledging that individuals are responsible for these tasks.
Pakistan, the fifth most populous country globally, faces a high youth unemployment rate of 8.5 per cent, due to a low education level and poor skills base. The country is stuck in a low-skills trap, relying on readily available low-tech exports due to low human resource development and a 48.2 per cent illiteracy rate among the working-age population. To prepare its youth workforce for technological transformation, skills training is crucial, as 80 percent of the population is below 30. Pakistan’s traditional model of skilling, reskilling, and upskilling is facing challenges due to a gap between the quality and relevance of training and the skilled labour force needed in market-relevant and demand-driven trades. With fewer private training opportunities, higher costs, and limitations associated with public sector skills delivery, making it difficult for beneficiaries to keep up with technological changes.
Pakistan’s youth, aged 15-29, face challenges in accessing jobs due to poor educational outcomes, limited skills, and lack of confidence. This skills gap has sparked debates about the future of skills and youth, highlighting underperforming structural changes. Pakistan’s economy is experiencing a decline in agriculture, nonetheless, the manufacturing sector remains low value added. Workers are shifting from agriculture to services, and labour is transitioning from farm work to informal wholesale and retail market work. The private sector, producing over 90 per cent of goods and services, influences skill demand.
Pakistan must shift towards technology and knowledge-based products, focusing on global development, to thrive in the competitive global market.
In the 21st-century labour market, a comprehensive skill set is required, including foundational cognitive skills like understanding complex ideas, and adapting to the environment and reason as well as socio-emotional skills like leadership and teamwork. Specialized skills involve knowledge and expertise in specific tasks, while digital skills involve accessing, managing, understanding, integrating, communicating, evaluating, and creating information safely. Pakistan’s young face unique skills and employment challenges due to the globalized economy, making offices, businesses, and industries more competitive. Workers need higher skills for innovation, service quality, production efficiency, and value chain improvement. Technological progress has altered the types, content, and character of talents required by industry.
Skill development is crucial for sustainable development and facilitating transitions from unofficial to formal sectors. Programs like apprenticeship training, technical education, industrial arts, and vocational education contribute to skill development. Prioritizing skill development is essential for emerging technology and shifting economies. The ideals of decent employment guide the creation and implementation of these programs, facilitating socially fair transitions and promoting sustainable development.
Pakistan’s low Human Development Index reveals a neglect of human resources development, particularly in skill development. This has led to a decline in productivity, employment, and exports, as well as a slow rise in living standards. Factors contributing to this neglect include inward-looking policies, a focus on outdated technology, and a shortage of trained labour. Pakistan must shift towards technology and knowledge-based products, focusing on global development, to thrive in the competitive global market. To support national and sectoral development strategies, the government should increase skill development, manage global change drivers, identify current and future skills needs early, link education, skills development, labour market entry, lifelong learning, promote social inclusion and support private sector involvement in vocational and technical training by providing credit availability and import duty exemptions for approved training equipment. The government should ensure effective regulation by determining fee levels, conducting examinations, establishing certification processes, and establishing suitable institutional frameworks to preserve quality and uniformity in the country’s skill development initiatives.
Information gaps in the skills demand sector in Pakistan are causing employers to struggle to reach potential employees and find relevant information about skilled applicants. Online portals, while useful for holding CVs, lack adequate sorting and filtering options, making it difficult for recruiters and HR departments to identify the most relevant candidates. Employers also express concerns about the availability of timely information on labour market needs and the supply of skills in their region, industry, and technological level. The demand for specific types of skilled graduates is often disconnected from their supply, with machine operators, stitchers, and electricians being the most sought-after. Employers prioritize employability skills over technical skills at the entry level, focusing on analytical, problem-solving, self-discipline, and people skills. Training providers often fail to conduct meaningful market research, leading to outdated and less relevant curricula and not exposing trainees to entrepreneurship.
To improve skills and workforce development, strengthening ties between academic institutions, businesses, and skill providers is crucial. This includes incorporating marketable skills from a young age and integrating Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) into secondary schools. This allows TVET providers to adapt their curriculum to employers’ real-time feedback, enhancing the labour market. ICT-based job portals can also help bridge information gaps and strengthen ties between businesses and skilled workers. Skills should be included in major industrial and economic growth plans to contribute to the larger growth agenda. The government should encourage the development of a single, approved system for issuing qualifications, ensuring timely and legitimate national certificates. Increased industrial participation in the skills sector can address concerns about training quality and usefulness. Research investments can guide the creation of relevant training programs. A focus on women’s skills development can improve their chances of finding higher-paying employment. Government and private sectors should address inequalities in access to training, assist returnees in using their skills, and cater to prospective migrants by developing skills and obtaining certifications that yield the best benefits in their destination countries.
The writer is PhD in Political Science, and visiting faculty at QAU Islamabad. He can be reached at zafarkhansafdar@yahoo.com and tweet@zafarkhansafdar