The President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi, has said that online education programs like Google Career Certificates can provide the Pakistani youth with a pathway into several burgeoning digital sectors poised for expansion.
Google recently launched Career Certificates to offer flexible learning paths for the Pakistani youth to enable them to develop knowledge and acquire digital skills for in-demand jobs. In the program, the tech giant is offering 15,000 scholarships this year through local partners comprising of education institutions, industry partners and non-profits, including the Institute of Rural Management (IRM) and Ignite National Technology Fund.
President Alvi highlighted that the digital courses organised by Google and IRM will equip the youth of Pakistan with skills to enter growing sectors like cyber security, communication technologies and blockchain. He further added that the initiative would anchor Pakistan towards digital technology that promises to revolutionise the world. Regarding the effect on business operations, Dr Alvi said that the youngsters could offer their expertise on a global scale resulting in quick pace and efficient functioning of businesses. He encouraged them to participate and learn from the Google courses to scale up their careers.
“The youth will be able to enter numerous expanding digital sectors thanks to the digital courses being offered by Google and its partners,” the president stated in a video message.
“Opportunities in Information Technology (IT) have the potential to reduce youth unemployment in the country,” he underscored.
“With the help of these digital courses, women can also play a pivotal role in the country’s economy,” added Dr Alvi. “Pakistan’s ICT sector has witnessed remarkable growth over the past decade, boasting an average annual revenue growth rate of 20-30%. This is the right time to capitalise on these opportunities with focus and diligence,” emphasised Noman Ahmed Said CEO at SI Global Solutions.
“Roughly 4.7% of Pakistan’s labour force is currently employed in the ICT sector, of which only 6% are women. These Career Certificates and scholarships will empower and encourage women to pursue and excel in different technological fields as well,” he added.
“Digital literacy is paramount to working in a society where computers and mobile devices are used on a daily basis for information transfer,” noted Waqas Ghani Kukaswadia an ICT analyst at JS Global. “Businesses, employees and students need to quickly learn to adapt to technology in the modern world; a prerequisite for most jobs today,” he added.
Explaining that while these courses don’t replace university education he said, “They equip individuals with basic ground-level understanding in their field of choice. These self-paced Google courses will be useful to thousands of professionals and students looking to increase their earnings by utilising their spare time after day jobs or studies.”
Speaking to the Express Tribune, ABCore CEO Khurram Schehzad said, “This program will help contribute in building skills, but it represents a drop in the ocean. We need to conduct our own gap analysis (industry-academia linkage), customise our curricula and develop the skill set the industry needs, at both the local and global level,” he suggested.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2022.
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