‘Parwaaz’ to create jobs in Pakistan with the private sector

The government of Pakistan and World Economic Forum have partnered to launch Parwaaz, a national accelerator that looks to close the skill gap and create employment opportunities in the country.

Top tier management from private companies and Special Advisor to PM on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfi Bukhari held a press conference on Thursday to discuss the future of jobs in Pakistan in light of the WEF Report.

Pakistan has been featured in the ‘Future of Jobs’ Report for the first time. The Pakistan chapter showcases jobs and skills of the future, highlighting Pakistani employers’ perspectives on new job roles and skills that require attention and investment in the country in the age of technology and automation. The report features in-depth information on 15 global industries and 26 advanced and emerging countries.

Bukhari said the government’s job is not to provide jobs but to govern and provide policies. It is the responsibility of the government to provide a better environment for the private sector to create more jobs, he said.

At present, the market is full of young people with old skills that have little or no use today, he said. “Young people now need to learn new skills,” said the PM’s aide.

The government is trying to bring transparency in government affairs through digitalisation.

“Digitalisation in Pakistan can help curb corruption but the government is facing resistance,” he said. Bukhari said digitalisation could help end the culture of red-tape.

The Punjab Skills Development Fund serves as the secretariat for Parwaaz.

Parwaaz has facilitated an extensive employer-based survey conducted with over 50 top Pakistani companies and business leaders across six priority sectors. The profile on Pakistan provides a detailed snapshot of the future readiness of the workforce in the country.

The report insights reveal that in Pakistan, of the over 82 million working age population, 50% on average have requisite digital skills, 51% have business relevant skills, and almost 55% have acquired education with business relevance. While this looks promising for an emerging country, large challenges remain with 31% youth not featured in employment, education, or training, and 55% of working age population in vulnerable employment.

The results of the Pakistan survey do, however, have room for ‘measured optimism’, technology adoption especially in the areas of E-commerce, Big Data analytics and Cloud Computing is high (91% of the companies surveyed).

The report also highlights the unique economic challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and that while technology-driven job creation is still surpassing job redundancy over the next five years, the rate of growth in the jobs of tomorrow is reducing.