ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday advised the youth to equip themselves with skills to benefit from the massive available opportunities in all sectors.

Addressing the first-ever “Career Guide Expo 2022” held by the Ministry of Federal Education, the president said there were huge opportunities available in all fields, and developments like the entry of Amazon in Pakistan had opened up avenues for aspiring businesspersonns.

The three-day expo features one-on-one counseling, a career guide seminar, over 30 stalls set up by local and international organisations, a book fair, scholarship pavilion, and ideas exhibition. The president said being a 19 times smaller country than Pakistan, the Netherlands had emerged as the world’s second-largest food exporter just by utilising modern technologies in agriculture.

The president, who earlier took a round of the stalls set up by HEC, PTCL, Oxford University Press, OGDCL, Pakistan Navy and other organisations, thanked the education ministry for providing a rare opportunity to the students which should be expanded across the country.

Says instead of sitting at home young women should contribute to national development after getting education

He asked the youth to go into the fields based on the market needs as well as their own aptitude, advising them to never show prejudices to the knowledge coming from others.

Besides improving their communication skills, the president said, it was also equally essential to earn a repute of trustworthiness as corruption had damaged the country. He said in the absence of market analysis in the past, the country had produced doctors even beyond the market requirement which led to the brain drain owing to the lack of jobs in the country.

He said currently the world faced a dearth of human capital as around 80 million people were needed just for cyber security.

In this context, Pakistan has a huge advantage and the world was also looking at it for quality human capital. He said the information technology had enabled young women to run their businesses from home.

He told the gathering of students that Facebook had been given a target to train 100,000 girls this year to enable them market their products to international buyers.

President Alvi also cautioned the youth about the phenomenon of fake news which, according to a latest study, mostly impacted children of up to 14 years of age.

Exemplifying young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and India’s Muskan Khan for her courage to protect her right of wearing a hijab, the president advised the girls to contribute to the national development after getting education instead of sitting at home.

Secretary Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Naheed Durrani said contrary to the past children in the current era required constant support and counseling to make them opt a career.

She said events like the expo were inevitable for the youth to provide them opportunities for asking questions and remove their suspicions about the particular fields they wanted to join and also boost their confidence.

Advising the students to give a special focus on technical skills, the secretary said while entering the practical life the youth should also consider their soft skills.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022