Speakers at Pakistan Leadership Forum (PLF) have urged upon the academia and entrepreneurs to strengthen the linkages between each other so that ever increasing unemployment in the country should be controlled. Addressing a seminar organised by PLF titled as "Education, Entrepreneurship and Employment, Strengthening the Linkage" at Dreamworld Family Resort, they said that the country was producing an army of unemployed and the whopping gap between the employed and unemployed could be bridged with greater linkages between the entrepreneurs, manufacturers and industrialists with the academia.
They also agreed that there is a clear case of "skills gap" seen in this age group. "The big challenge today for Pakistan is "How do we really revamp the education system to produce enough entrepreneurs to create the millions of jobs needed in an increasingly automated and computerised world," they added. Another question raised at the seminar was about the curriculum that are taught to the students, which is not compatible to our local environment and thus producing a stuff that is quite non-productive.
Furthermore, the graduates are being produced by the academia are not meeting the demand of the local entrepreneurs. Keynote speaker was Dr Miles Davis from the United States, who is currently Dean at George Durell Endowed Chair in Management at Shenandoah University. Dr Miles Davis said that unemployment was possibly the biggest challenge in the 21st century.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) the world economy is estimated to have expanded by 3.1 percent in 2015. The economic weakening has caused a further increase in global unemployment. Dean of IOBM Dr Irfan Hyder emphasised the need for holding such seminars for creating awareness and tackle the challenges faced by Pakistan's corporate and professional sector.
Speaking on the occasion, founder of PLF Syed Azfar Hussain presented the resolution of the seminar and also informed the audience about the future events of PLF. Other prominent speakers were Arif Naqi, Dr Shahid Qureshi of IBA, Dr Naveed Jamil of DHA Suffa, Dr Mustaghis-ur-Rehman, HOD Bahria, Nawaz Ahmed, consultant RTS , Omair Ansari, Shaikh Ali, Omair Jalali and others.