Day one: Education and Career Expo attracts large crowds

Thousands of students explore study options

ISLAMABAD: A two-day education and career expo by the Express Media Group opened on Wednesday at the Pak-China Friendship Centre where students, university representatives, foreign education consultants and employers gathered under one roof to explore the opportunities in today’s market.

Abasyn University, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan, the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Foundation University Islamabad, the Oxford University Press, University College Islamabad, the ICMA Pakistan, Al-Nafees Medical College, Nur International University, Urdu University, the ACCA, Roots and several other educational institutes had set up stalls at the expo.



Mass Comm Solutions Chief Executive Officer Qamar Chaudhry told The Express Tribune that Pakistan had a dire need of directing youth towards opportunities and ways to tap those opportunities.

At the same time, there was also a need to guide universities about skills and areas that the market had a demand for, he said.



“The idea of the expo is to bring all stakeholders -- students, universities and employers -- under one roof so they can understand true needs and demands of each other,” Chaudhry said.

He further said that another aim of the expo was to make people realise that engineering and medicine were not the only career paths.

“We want people to realise that for a society to operate effectively, we need writers, graphic designers, actors, singers and other professionals just as much as we need lawyers, doctors and engineers,” Chaudhry said.

The event that attracted huge crowds on the first day aims to create awareness about the different fields that exist in the market, the opportunities that have immense scope and the subjects offered at various universities.

An interesting feature of the expo was the different events including drama fest, declamation competitions, documentary screenings, battle of the bands, singing competitions, ad campaigns and dance competitions along with informative sessions on the functions and working with the UNHCR.

Over 40 universities participated in the events with 275 teams including 2,800 students competing in the competitions.

By midday on the first day of the expo, 14,000 people had already visited with a vast majority of students looking for various education options for their future.



The USEFP Program Officer, Nadia Omar, told The Express Tribune that it was a positive sign that such events were being held where students could find out about the opportunities that exist for them.

“We have been promoting and creating awareness about Fulbright and other programmes that allow students to go to the United States to gain higher education. One of the most frequently asked questions at the expo has been whether it is possible to receive full funding and I tell students that it is. They just need to find the right opportunity and put in effort,” she said.

Day two of the expo will feature a seminar on the UNHCR, singing competition, ad campaign, dance competition, award ceremony, fashion show and the closing ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2016.