Lack of jobs for engineers isn’t the problem, poor quality of education is: Fawad Chaudhry

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry believes that the typically feared lack of jobs for engineers and tech workers in Pakistan isn’t really a problem. Instead, he insists that it is the poor quality of education propagated in universities and colleges that poses a serious problem and one that needs to solved urgently.

The Minister made these comments when he took to Twitter to share a report stating that more than 500 Japanese IT companies are looking to recruit tremendously from Pakistan as a result of a lack of IT engineers in Japan.

“Availability of jobs for engineers in the country isn’t a problem, our problem is the poor quality of education in universities and colleges,” Mr. Chaudhry tweeted.

In fact, according to Japanese ambassador to Pakistan Kuninori Matsuda himself, there are around 300,000 skilled IT specialists and engineers in Pakistan. And while that may sound like an overwhelming number, the ambassador stressed that these engineers are more than capable of filling up a vast number of vacant positions at several top Japanese firms. So, it does appear that a lack of IT jobs won’t exactly be a pressing problem for the nation’s IT experts and specialists.

Mr. Chaudhry went on to talk about how he has been stressing upon the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for quite a while now that there is a need to boost national universities to global education standards, revolutionize the syllabus, and create degrees in accordance with industry requirements.

“Availability of jobs is not going to be a problem for truly capable individuals,” he insisted.

The Japan IT Association believes that there is a severe shortage of IT engineers in Japan, due to which it expects to face a shortage of around eight million engineers by 2030. Therefore, it is making efforts to recruit from Pakistan to fulfill the need for IT experts and specialists.