THE federal government is formulating a national policy for technical education and vocational training, which is considered critical for achieving the strategic objectives of the Socioeconomic Vision 2025.

A task force consisting of experts and representatives of different public and private sector bodies has begun the groundwork. After wide ranging consultations with relevant stakeholders, the draft policy document is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

“The formulation of a national policy for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is essential to achieve national development policy goals,” Minister of State for Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education, Blighur Rehman, said at the inaugural session of the task force in Islamabad.

The Vision 2025 — a long-term strategic roadmap for the country’s sustainable socioeconomic development — has six core objectives, all of which are closely linked to TVET. A qualified skilled labour force feeds economic development and makes goods and services produced in the country globally competitive. The concept behind this policy is to re-engineer the country’s TVET system to align it with the national development framework and the needs of the labour market, the minister says.

In the absence of an overall coordinated policy for technical education, it is difficult to measure the skill gap, identify new jobs or occupations, and forecast emerging trends. This causes a disconnect within the macroeconomic framework

Moreover, TVET is also an important instrument for equipping the youth with employable skills, which in turn, create opportunities for the growth of individuals and families. Skilled people — irrespective of the urban or rural divide — either gain decent jobs or get self-employed.

Pakistan’s TVET system, however, is challenged by a number of systemic issues. Poor access to technical education, outdated curricula and equipment, and weak industrial linkage makes the outcome of the training cycle of limited use in the job market.

To overhaul the TVET system and address these challenges, the government embarked upon ambitious reforms in April 2011, based upon a comprehensive National Skills Strategy (NSS). This reform agenda is spearheaded by the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission, which is an apex body for the TVET sector. The reforms are supported by multilateral donors including the European Union, and the Dutch and German governments.

According to experts, NSS is a comprehensive document that offers recipes for revamping the TVET system by making it demand-driven, and is inspired by international best practices for creation of skilled workforce on the basis of competence, rather than curricula-based training.

This strategy document, however, offers limited alignment with the overall development framework, and is seldom reflected in the broader macroeconomic framework for growth. This makes the overall TVET sector — the missing link in the country’s overall economic vision — vulnerable to inconsistencies and weak planning and implementation.

In the absence of an overall TVET policy, it becomes difficult to measure the skill gap, identify new jobs or occupations, and forecast labour market conditions as per emerging trends. This causes overlaps, selection of wrong priorities, and a disconnect within the macroeconomic framework. Several key partners involved in economic and social development are not working together under an umbrella of a single, consolidated and agreed-upon skill development and investment plan, which ideally should be derived from the national socioeconomic development framework, such as Vision 2025.

For example, the National Energy Policy 2013 laid out a major emphasis on renewable energy. So this means the job market is expecting the formation of new skill patterns.

The same goes for the export of manpower, which is one of the more sustainable sources of foreign exchange. During the first 10 months 2013-14 alone, the country received $12.895bn, and there is great potential of sending skilled workers abroad.

The Gulf is a traditional market for overseas Pakistani workers, and the upcoming Expo 2020 being hosted by Dubai is a real opportunity. The concerned government ministries are looking forward to it. The question is how will this workforce develop according to international standards if there is no integration of cross sectors of the economy through a policy instrument.

Estimates suggest that the country needs a minimum GDP growth rate of around 7pc to absorb the additional workforce in the long-run. Against this demand for workforce generated due to higher growth, the country’s overall capacity to produce skilled labour is just 300,000 per year. The quality of the training itself is not up to market demands.

The country has the potential to benefit from its young population. However, what is missing at the moment is a coordinated strategy to give these young people employable skills. According to experts, the upcoming national TVET policy should be linked with macroeconomic dynamics and the government’s development strategies, which will result in more coordinated planning for the production of a skilled workforce required for economic growth.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, July 14th, 2014