LAST month, the federal government reversed its decision to slash the HEC’s budget but it seems to have been a case of ‘too little, too late’. Federally administered universities can hope to cover the main component of their expenditure, which is salaries for teaching and non-teaching staff, but the urgency to improve standards will go unaddressed yet again.

Many of our higher education institutions churn out large numbers of graduates each year, but there are no systems in place to absorb them into the economic infrastructure, neither are there programmes to upskill the graduates for job requirements. Most find themselves navigating an extremely competitive market where they cannot match up to the skills needed to be hired.

With 58 per cent of our population under the age of 24, our higher education system has to step up to deliver the outcomes necessary for economic growth. Over two million Pakistanis are currently in higher education and only 60,000 get the opportunity to study in institutes abroad. Our 3,000 degree colleges have the massive responsibility to produce job-ready graduates, which requires investment in infrastructure, technology, industry ties and skills that can serve key economic sectors.

Any hope for building the economy must come from creating employment pathways for our young graduates, which implies that outdated curricula and traditional teaching cannot contribute to the change we need. We cannot expect to churn the same wheel and expect different results, and we can no longer afford to keep our young population out of jobs.

We can no longer afford to keep our young population out of jobs.

In most developed societies, the vision for growth has come from humanities education — philosophy, literature and culture. Sadly, we’ve deprioritised humanities. We have also failed to retain our doctors and scientists, and we haven’t upgraded our math, engineering and technology teaching. What we are looking at is an economy teetering on the brink of decline and we need quick solutions for uplift.

Pakistan Vision 2025 by the planning ministry highlights some key areas demanding urgent focus. Among these is the need to create jobs. Unfortunately, while it highlights the pillars for improvement and change, it doesn’t lay out the strategy that will address the urgent need for employment.

Employment pathways such as establishing recruitment programmes that are backed by agencies serving particular geographical communities may provide quick and easy access to match graduates with available jobs in their area. Tax breaks for companies that hire a set quota of fresh graduates may create the impetus to hire and train for the skills needed for the jobs. Employed people spend more, pay taxes and boost the economy through generating money. Smaller companies can benefit from hiring graduates who have lower salary expectations and can be trained quickly.

Very few universities offer placement centres to help graduates find jobs, and fewer still have experimented with incubation centres to set up entrepreneurship opportunities for their students. This is mainly due to the costs attached. However, the long-term benefits outweigh the costs. Supporting entrepreneurship by funding small and promising ventures may enable universities to create economic opportunities for their graduates, whilst earning themselves a sound reputation that will help attract and retain students, creating new revenue streams for the institution.

There is much to learn from developed societies. One study of the US economy from 1980 to 2005 found that the annual net employment gro­w-th in the US would have been negative wi­­thout small busin­esses. The cu-mulative effect of small businesses on job creation is massive, especial­­ly given that they tend to keep costs low by hiring fresh graduates on re-latively lower sa­­­laries.

It also creates a pathway for development as the small businesses become training grounds for the young population who can then transition to the larger companies in due course. In fact, this isn’t new to us. After independence, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah initiated a policy of funding small businesses and giving concessions to spur economic growth in key sectors. Jinnah made it clear that industrial power was Pakistan’s hope to reduce dependence on external help for life’s necessities.

Traditionally, developed societies have also created programmes that match small entrepreneurs with the more successful and established ones to create networking synergies within communities.

Nowhere is it possible to create jobs without enablement programmes and if we don’t empower our growing population, we would be running after a train that is headed towards disaster.

The writer is a teacher trainer, authorand Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK. The views expressed are her own and do not reflect those of her employer.

neda.mulji@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2024