‘Desi’, people from South-East-Asia, in the US do all sorts of ‘part-time odd’ jobs they won’t opt for in their own countries. Why? Tradition, peer pressure, or false inflated egos. The same is true for the international and local university students who work on anything they can find under the open sky from working in fast-food chains to driving a bus on the campus routes in university campuses abroad.
These students happily use it to enhance their profiles, complete education or support their families back home. When asked why they don’t prefer to do the same in their own countries and keep languishing in poverty instead. All have the same answer: the fear of being looked down upon and cultural norms.
Irshad, a guy in my hometown, Lahore, was desperate for a job. He has eight dependents. However, when offered a job as a chauffeur with a lucrative salary, he declined because this would make him look low in his family — who are all poor and uneducated but do not work as a chauffeur. Unfortunately, this thinking is prevalent in the students too.
Our youth in Pakistan are ready to be jobless, languish in depression, snubbed by their family members, go into unhealthy activities but are not ready to work? Universities must take the lead and do what they are meant to do — give solutions to indigenous problems in society. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Just learn and implement.
The youth need a paradigm shift in their perception of work. We need to work. Period. Our ‘friend with benefits’ China did the same for prosper. They made sure everyone works by 1980. Today they are emerging as a superpower. Modern psychology is convinced that a progressive ‘attitude’ plays a far bigger impact on the success of a person than his technical knowledge.
In the US, universities are students’ miniature world. They are not isolated, rather get introduced to it with training. They are involved here in almost every affair of the university. They get training, language tests, teaching courses, etiquettes class, short certificates, sensitisation about ethics, diversity, racism, harassment, etc. University buses are driven by students, they are the hairstylist in the campus saloons, work as receptionists in the library, resident tutors in hostels, director student halls, cab drivers, app developers for the university, waiters, health coaches in the gym, swimming trainers, waiters on the football game day, assistants in the IT helpdesk, student-worker in labs, graders, research assistants, firefighting and what not! Volunteering to earn course credits is besides such part-time jobs.
In Pakistan, universities must act as training wheels for the students too. Else we will continue to suffer by the double sword of realities: having a huge bulge of unemployed people who have no life skills and on the other hand, have a huge demand for the skilled people who we need for the services. Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has been experimenting with this. Students involved in startups inside the university like running a small food stall, providing food to students at the doorsteps in hostels, etc have ended up creating a giant brand for the country. Other universities must also follow the lead.
Cultures take centuries to form and change. However, in the present age where nothing is slow, we might ponder how our attitude towards work can change especially when we are left with no other option besides ‘pulling up our socks’ in the situation where having socks is a privilege. Imagine (not too hard!) the sixty-five percent of youth in Pakistan, uneducated, unemployed, and not ready to work. No nightmare will match it when joblessness and inflation are nerve-wracking.
If students are offered part-time jobs on and off campuses, the universities will get fresh talent, inquisitive minds who will increase the efficiency of work by many folds and students will get to learn, work, practise, explore, participate, interact, speak, decide, perform in the part-time jobs available. These skills, attitude, work ethics, leadership and management learned in the university enable them to develop exceptional traits in their professional life. It’s time to work! The change must come, and varsities must take the lead.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 03, 2022.
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