Roundtable conference: Education, training vital for prosperity

SAARC members should take steps urgently to bridge skill gap: Srivastava.

LAHORE: Dr Aarti Srivastava, speaking at a conference on ‘Skills for Employability in South Asia’, said that skills development and right technical education are the key drivers for economic growth as productive workforce helps improve competitiveness in global world. Srivastava is an associate professor of National University of Education Planning and Administration.

The Indian professor also briefed the participants about human resource development, skill development requirements and technical skills required by all the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) members including Pakistan.

She added that surveys must be employed to investigate human resource requirements in different sectors and tailor the courses and training programmes accordingly to bridge the gap between demand and supply of human capital.

Saarc Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik said that the roundtable will help to identify the sector specific skill gap all across South Asia. He said that it is the need of the hour to take up this matter on priority basis because in the region, despite being no shortage of labour supply, the big question mark on relevant skills remains an evident factor. “We need to address this problem thoroughly because there has not been any aggressive and comprehensive action plan exercised to improve this alarming situation”, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2012.