Need urged for adopting steps for skilled workforce

ISLAMABAD (APP): Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) Mian Kashif Ashfaq Sunday urged the need to adopt result oriented prudent measures and provide workforce with the opportunities for skill development.
He said that the industrial sector was confronted with severe shortage of skilled manpower across the country, which was affecting the delivery schedule of export shipments.
Speaking at a workshop on “The role of skill development in economy” he said modern technology is growing exponentially, with new advancements coming up every day and disrupting the usual work practices. He said continuous process improvement followed by innovations has compelled to change and adapt new business models.
He said as a result, it created a skills gap, where the skills offered do not match required by the employers to meet future global challenges in local and international markets.
Quoting the World Economic Forum, he said more than a billion people including Pakistan will need to be re-skilled by 2030 on modern lines to meet ever growing demands of skilled manpower.
He said keeping up with recent technology trends has become the need of the hour for employability for any workforce throughout the world.
Mian Kashif said women who constitute 48 percent of the population must be fully offered opportunities under one umbrella to gain knowledge of modern technical skills and tools to contribute towards national economic development which will also help a lot to narrow down skill gap besides providing ample job opportunities.
He said current literacy rate of Pakistan is around 62.3 percent that means 60 million are unable to read or write. He said illiterate people can be trained in furnitures industry and sectors including construction through imparting necessary training instead of wasting huge segment of the society.
He said genuinely highly qualified IT skilled people are in great demand in developed countries which he added will have great direct impact on national economy. He said “ our universities and other educational institutions must reshape their outdated syllabus in line with ever changing global trends and meeting the markets driven demands”.
Kashif said that all technical institutions under federal and provincial governments must take stakeholders into confidence prior framing policies for launching new courses.
He said only such courses be offered which meet demands of industrial sectors. He said academia and industrial linkage will help greatly improving the economic growth and employability of students after completion of their studies.