Youth bulge challenge

The youth is the future of a country — and Pakistan is brimful of youth, with 64% below the age of 30, and 29% in the bracket of 15-29 years, according to the United Nations Development Programme. It’s a blessing indeed, if utilised properly. But we as a state are known for turning assets into liabilities, opportunities into risks, boon into bane, and blessing into curse. Our politicians — from an ageing Imran Khan to a young Bilawal Bhutto — hardly leave any opportunity to emphasise the importance of youth to the country, alongside claiming to enjoy their backing. But do they really have a plan to turn this ‘future’ into a dynamic workforce from an idle lot it currently is, to prevent them ending up being terrorists and drug addicts, on failing to get employed?

Well, Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema, the Director General of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission, offers our leaders a really viable plan on how to benefit from the youth bulge fortune which is fast turning into a challenge. Cheema wants politicians to prioritise the skills development sector, highlighting that the commission is providing international standard training in different sectors to a hundred thousand youths annually, making a vast majority financially independent. To cater to the needs of modern era, he says, the commission is also introducing high-end technology courses like mechatronics and robotics.

With its focus on lifting the quality of education to the global standards, strengthening links with industry and enhancing international collaboration, the commission is on the right track in its efforts to cut unemployment — and thereby the unrest and discontent among the youth — and promote material and economic advancement. It’s time for our rulers to supplement these efforts.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2018.

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