ISLAMABAD – The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has urged upon the governmentto take serious notice of the country’s human capital deficiency byfocusing on re-skilling, digitization, and technological advancements togain a competitive advantage in next phase of China Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC).
“CPEC is expected to generate significant avenues of employment for thedomestic labor force, especially after the establishment of the proposedSpecial Economic Zones (SEZs).However, as this development takes shape, the job requirements wouldgradually become more demanding,” the second quarterly report 2018-19 on“The State of Economy” published by the SBP said.
The report stressed the need to improving the level of human capital in theeconomy to ensure that both the existing and the incoming labor force isskilled enough to meet the growing technical requirements of the evolvingnature of work.
The report proposed that a significant overhaul of the education system ofthe country is required to address the dearth of adequately skilledgraduates entering the labor force.
The effectiveness of the primary education needs to be enhancedsignificantly in order to improve the level of knowledge-absorption andincreasing the level of enrollment in schools. Of equal importance is theneed for revising the curriculum of academic institutions to better reflectthe needs of current and future occupations.
Focus on vocational and skills training of the work force is critical inensuring that the employability levels of the domestic workers remainintact, or ideally increase, during the transitional stage of jobtransformation and technical advancement. It added that a welcomedevelopment in this regard is that the Chinese firms are already involvedin technical skill building of the Pakistani youth to enable them to beprepared for work under the CPEC programs.
This includes emphasis on vocational training (such as the construction ofPak-China Technical and Vocational Institute at Gwadar), scholarships andexchange programs for university and college students as mentioned in theJoint-Statement, and collaborative efforts with Pakistani technologicalplatforms (such as the AliBaba eFounders Fellowship program with NICKarachi).
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It added that an encouragement development is that the National Vocationaland Technical Training Commission (NAVTCC) of Pakistan is in the process ofintroducing officially defined skill-set categorizations to help improvethe placement and skill matching in the domestic labor market.
Under the revised National Vocational Qualifications Framework (NVQF), anassessment criterion is being developed to classify workers according toskill-sets and to facilitate their gradual promotion to higher levels.
On the technology front, the report said that Digital Pakistan Policyreleased last year includes an optimistic blueprint for the enhancement ofhuman capital via expansion of digitization in the country.
9 Emphasis on digital and financial literacy and inclusion would be vitalto enable both individuals and businesses to take advantage of the ICT ine-commerce, Fintech and BPO segments of the market.
Finally, a strong focus on higher-level education pertaining to thecomplementary services sector (such as accountancy, consultancy, legal,etc.) would be needed so that the domestic labor force can fulfil theassociated requirements of new industries enacted under the proposed SEZs,the report added.
