Pakistan needs vocational training to boost economic growth, said Arthur Bayhan, CEO of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF). The CSF was making a special presentation to the National Vocational Training and Education Commission (Navtec) here on Tuesday.
The State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report of the CSF and the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) identified inadequately educated workforce, poor work ethics in national labour force, and restrictive labour restrictions as most problematic factors in doing business in Pakistan.
The GCR indicated and re-emphasised in the State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report that, Pakistan has made improvements in the hiring and firing practices and co-operation in labour-employer relations. However Pakistan needs much improvement in building a skilled and productive workforce to improve its competitiveness.
The meeting was chaired by Shahid Rashid, Executive Director, National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (Navtec). Rashid informed the CSF delegation that Navtec was established to develop a technical education and vocational training system in the country to produce 0.95 million appropriately skilled workforce annually by 2010.
He further elaborated on the objectives of the Navtec and informed the delegation that the government in its Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) has identified that growth cannot be sustained by the agriculture sector no matter how modern, by the textile dominated manufacturing sector, or a low productivity service sector. "It will be sustained only by major investments in the production, dissemination and absorption of knowledge", said Rashid. Briefing on the importance of creating Navtec, Rashid said that Navtec is working directly under the Prime Minister.
Navtec was established to address some fundamental indicators of the skilled and productive labour force in the country, which includes insufficient and out-dated skills standards, paucity of labour market information, improvements in fragmented and uncoordinated delivery of technical and vocational training, lack of evaluation of efficiency and outcomes of training institutions, weak participation of private sector in policy making, training delivery and non-existence of employment placement data of trainees at the national and provincial levels.
He further informed the CSF delegation that presently Navtec produces 250,000 skilled workers annually against a requirement of 1 million workforce. Briefing on the state of Pakistan's technical and vocational education, Rashid informed the delegation that, economic growth, boom in construction sector and boom in the economies of Middle Eastern countries have generated massive demand for skilled and technical manpower.
He further said that Pakistan's vocational training institutes, which are working below their optimal capacity will have to rejuvenate and reenergize their efforts to bridge the gape in the demand and supply of technically skilled labour force. He informed the CSF delegation that his organisation is ensuring maximum utilisation of the training facilities.
He also said that Navtec is working with other institutes to focus on market based training courses and to increase social awareness about the significance of vocational training. "We would like to benefit from CSF's work in Pakistan to improve competitiveness and effectiveness of the vocational training and educational institutes in the country", said Rashid.
Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer of the Competitiveness Support Fund in his presentation, briefed the Commission on the strengths and weaknesses of the market efficiency and labour productivity indicators, where Pakistan is lacking behind. "Pakistan has to create more synergies through public-private partnerships in labour productivity and efficiency", said Bayhan. CSF will be co-operating closely on the new initiatives of Navtec in improving Pakistan's ranking on the market efficiency and labour productivity indicators.
The presentation highlighted the competitiveness aspects of the labour and manpower issues in Pakistan with respect to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) of the World Economic Forum.
Bayhan emphasised the importance of strengthening the public-private partnerships to promote vocational schools. He further said that to enhance the efficiency and productivity to sustain the economic growth in Pakistan, it is important to increase the quality of business and management schools and the private sector should be encouraged to provide more opportunities for training. He further informed the meeting that CSF is working very closely with its partner institutions such as the Pakistan Business Council and the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) to increase private sectors' focus on capacity building, staff training and reliance on professional management.
Realising the role of skilled and technically educated manpower for development of overall national economy, the Government of Pakistan established the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (Navtec) in November 2006. The Commission is mandated to facilitate, regulate, and provide policy direction for technical education and vocational training to meet national and international demand for skilled manpower. The Commission will review, devise policy and evolve strategy/prepare training programmes relating to human resource development with a focus on technical and education and training (TVET). Navtec's energies are also dedicated to develop national occupational skills standards, curricula and trade testing certification systems for all sectors in which technical education and vocational training is imparted.
The Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz launched the State of Pakistan Competitiveness Report in March this year. The Prime Minister asked the CSF to bring all line- ministries and relevant institutions on board to improve Pakistan's ranking on the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum. CSF's presentation to Navtec was to discuss the identified sectors where Pakistan is lacking behind and how Pakistan can improve its competitiveness. The meetings with the other ministries and relevant institutions will follow.
Pakistan showed solid improvement from last year's 94th place to 91st place this year on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). The GCI ranked 125 countries in this year's survey over 117 in the prior year. Pakistan's gain takes on added significance when compared to the drop in rankings experienced by many noteworthy emerging markets. In comparison to the other economies, GCI rankings dropped by 9 for Russia and Brazil, by 6 for China, by 2 for Thailand and by 1 for Malaysia. With its rise of two places over last year, regional competitor India failed to keep pace with Pakistan's improvements.
The State of Pakistan's Competitiveness Report of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) and the World Economic Forum's annual Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) identified that additional work needs to be done to improve the Global Competitiveness Index ranking of Pakistan. Pakistan should put special emphasis on education, human resource development and expansion of business educational institutions.
CSF is working closely with the World Economic Forum, as its country partner institution, on the ranking of Pakistan as well as on identifying the areas to be improved and the methodologies that will bring about that improvement. CSF is also working with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to help create university/industry linkages to promote knowledge-based enterprise development in Pakistan.
The CSF delegation comprised of Arthur Bayhan, CEO of the Competitiveness Support Fund and Abdul Basit, Joint Secretary, of the Prime Minister's Special Programme Wing, Ministry of Finance.
Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). CSF Supports Pakistan's goal to be of a more competitiveness economy by providing input into policy decisions, working to improve regulatory and administrative frameworks and enhancing public-private partnerships within the country. CSF also provides technical assistance and co-financing for initiatives related to entrepreneurship, business incubators and private-sector-led initiatives with research institutes and universities that contribute to creating a knowledge-driven economy.
Support for CSF is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the US government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance.