HARIPUR: The higher education department (HED) here on Thursday officially launched the KP Job Fair Series 2025, marking a historic milestone in the province’s efforts to align higher education with industry needs, enhance graduate employability and expand international opportunities for youth.

The inaugural ceremony was held at the Pak-Austria Fachhochschule: Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (PAF-IAST).Secretary HED KP Kamran Ahmed Afridi inaugurated the job fair where over 100 IT related industries and job providers from government and private sector conducted interviews of over 2000 aspiring candidates from PAF-IAST and other universities of the province.

Vice chancellors of different universities, industry leaders, international partners, faculty, students and key government representatives were in attendance on this occasion. The event opened with a strong message of commitment to empowering the youth of KP through structured and forward-looking reforms.

Speaking to the participants the secretary HED said that after a diagnostic study HED had designed first ever KP’s roadmap with a decade’s strategy and action plan for the KP Higher Education Department, aimed at making pace with the changing global trends in the education sector.

Job Fair Series 2025 launched to enhance employment

“Under this roadmapwe have worked to promote the social cohesion, women empowerment and other positive co-curricular activities so that when the youth pass out from universities and institutes with academic excellence they could be integrated with a positive mind and as a single nation rather than other identities which is detrimental to the development and progress of the country,” he said.

Talking about other initiatives the secretary HED said that the HEC was contributing Rs9.4 billion to the KP’s higher education and the KP’s own contribution to the higher education was 1.5 to 1.9 billion rupees which the government had increased to Rs4.5 billion during the last two years.

Acting Rector Dr Nasir Ali Khan said that PAF-IAST which started its journey with 180 students in 2020 has now increased its students strength to 5000 and successfully carved a niche at global level. He termed the job fair a game changer for the country.

Speaking to the participants Zainab Azmat coordinator of the event said that the Job Fair Series represented far more than a recruitment activity—it is a systemic, policy-backed reform designed to unify all universities under a shared provincial mission for employability, innovation, and global competitiveness.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2025