ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: There is a yawning gap between being educated and practically applying one’s education to be successful in the real world. One of the reasons for this chasm being that Pakistan has a service-centric mindset: parents send their children to school in order to become eligible for jobs, instead of entrepreneurship.  

This was stated by the participants of ‘Annual Entrepreneurship Conference’ organised by a non government organisation (NGO) Entrepreneurship Development Institution on Monday.

Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation Dr Manzoor Hussain Soomro said that we should talk about creating enterprising minds. If government wants to do long term investment, funds should be spent on the youth.

“Only a good human being can become a perfect businessman. Every person has some qualities and it is the responsibility of the society to groom that particular quality. Every student should think and try to find the answers of his questions because innovation starts from inquiry,” he said.

CEO and co-founder of Nayatel (Pvt) Ltd Wahajus Siraj said that unfortunately all over the country students get degrees from educational institutions but they do not get any practical experience due to which they face problems in finding jobs.

“That practice should be changed and educational institutions should give practical knowledge to the students,” he said.

Head of Fast School of Business Dr Sadia Nadeem said that in the past there was a huge gap between educational institutions and industries but now-a-days industrialists have been contacting educational institutions to encourage the idea of students getting practical training.

“A linkage is developing between industries and the education sector but the progress is slow. We need to expedite the contacts between both sectors,” she said.

Finance Consultant of Oil and Gas sector Hasan Raza said that universities can give the knowledge about the business problems but it cannot push them to become good businessmen.

“Businessmen learn with their experiences. A businessman should have the capacity to foresee. I realised that there will be energy crises in the country, therefore I invested in the energy sector,” he said.

An educationist Dr Amaanullah Khan said that educational institutions are not required to create good businessmen. It is the environment which grooms a person.

“In Israel there is business math at primary level and students of business administration can only get the degree if they earn a profit of 10,000 US dollars through business. On the other hand we discourage our children from starting businesses and we force them to do a job. We have to change that mindset,” he said.

Dr Peter Bloodsworth, PhD in Multi-agent Systems from Oxford Brookes University UK said that people of Pakistan are successful and hardworking. They require only proper guidance.

“Youth should be informed that no-one can become a successful businessman within days and a very long struggle is required for success,” he said.