After the approval of the Council of Common Interest, the results of the 2023 census have proved that we need to take urgent steps to secure the future of our youth.  

Census data confirms that two and a half million children do not go to school in the country. In addition, the speed of population growth is also alarmingly high because according to the 1998 census, the population of Pakistan was 14 and a half million, which has increased to more than 24 million after about 25 years, in which 80 percent of the population is 40 years old or older.  Although such a large number of young people can be very useful for the development of any country, but for this it is necessary that they are also equipped with proper education and skills.  It is estimated that more than 60% of the workforce seeking employment lacks the skills required in the service and manufacturing sectors. For this reason, many companies and investors are reluctant to upgrade their production processes as the country lacks skilled human resources required for new jobs.  According to the Pakistan Labor Force Survey 2020-21, there are 159.830 million working age people in the country.

Of these, 89.2 million are men and about 78.9 million are women. However, out of this working population, 2.6 million men and 6.2 million women are unemployed.  Similarly, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum in 2017, most of the unemployed people in Pakistan have no skills.  According to this report, the number of skilled people in Pakistan is so low that it is ranked 125 in a list of 130 countries. Other South Asian countries in this list are also far better than Pakistan. Among them, Sri Lanka's number is 70, Nepal's 98, India's 103 and Bangladesh's 111. It is worth mentioning here that there are a wide number of excellent employment opportunities for skilled people in Pakistan and abroad, but the desire to acquire technical training is very low among our youth and everyone gets a university degree to get a top government job. Willing to get. Apart from this, there is a lack of technical education institutions in the country and their total number is around 3500 where the facility is available to train barely five lakh people. In such a situation, there is a need to improve the quality of education and training provided in these institutions along with increasing their capacity.  In this regard, the happy thing is that the Punjab government has decided to use public-private partnerships in TUTTA projects.  It has been decided to promote the partnership so that foreign language courses can also be introduced in Toyota's institutes in addition to conducting modern courses as per the market demand. Apart from this, it has also been agreed on the proposal of establishment of Punjab Overseas Employment Promoting Authority for skilled jobs in the international market. Similarly, other provinces and the federal government also need to understand that promotion and innovation of technical training courses is the need of the hour for economic growth and reduction of unemployment.

In this regard, trade officers posted in embassies can be given the task to identify specific trades for manpower preparation as per the requirement of each country. The information obtained in this way should be shared with the technical training institutions so that they can provide training to the youth in the same trades according to international standards and ensure employment.  If Pakistan as a developed country in the world. Self-sufficiency is not possible without skilled, educated and healthy human resources.  It is worth mentioning here that a large number of youths from Pakistan go abroad for employment but unfortunately due to lack of proper skills they rarely get better formal jobs. That is why we need an urgent change in our education policy. We need to understand that jobs for university graduates are decreasing all over the world including Pakistan. This is why young people in developed countries are now dropping out of college to attend vocational schools and acquire marketable skills.  To secure the future of the country, the government should ensure quality compulsory education up to the higher secondary level and also substantially increase the number of market-based vocational training institutions.It is very unfortunate that in an age of the internet when online earning resources are at their peak, our youth are unable to become part of this lucrative business ventures due to lack of the computer skills. The majority of educated people in Pakistan at present are people with several MA degrees but zero skills. Average intelligence for any country and government and credentials in specific subjects is not possible to provide government jobs to all people. Skill teaching institutions are active all over the world, but in some countries, youth are trained in one or the other skill from the student age, keeping in mind the interest of the young students. Many education plans and policies have come up with us, but we have been lacking in teaching skills  and technical trainings. Otherwise, our people are also rich in creativity and do not shy away from hard work. Due to this deficiency, the only dream of the unemployed youth is to get a job in a foreign country for which they endure severe hardships. Sometimes their boats sink into the sea and sometimes they die of suffocation in the containers. Most of those who arrive in foreign lands have to do jobs that they would never be willing to do in their own countries. These people can shape the destiny of Pakistan if provided due skills in their home country.

If we understand the needs of the world and use the resources in our country accordingly, we can produce an excellent workforce. Recently, the TVETA, an organizing for providing skills training in various fields to youth, was showcasing skills of Pakistani youth. There, furniture made of wood, and other artifacts prepared by us and to see the work in terms of pottery, it was all remarkable and excellent. From plumbers to all kinds of mechanics, modern training is being given by TVETA.  The world has become a global village, but we are still not trying to adapt to the world. The stability of the economy of our neighboring countries India and Bangladesh is owed to their citizens living abroad, who send billions of dollars of foreign exchange to their country every year. Apart from the Arab countries, during the trip to America and Europe, we talk to the Pakistanis living there, and they tell us with great sadness that our CVs do not contain anything except the credentials we have obtained. They also do not have that much status.