Dr. Arif Alvi, the president of Pakistan, has stated that online education initiatives like Google Career Certificates can open doors for young people in Pakistan into a number of rapidly growing digital industries.
Google recently introduced Career Certificates to provide Pakistani students with flexible learning pathways so they can advance their knowledge and gain the digital skills necessary for in-demand careers. Through local partners in the initiative, including educational institutions, business partners, and non-profits like the Institute of Rural Management (IRM) and Ignite National Technology Fund, the tech giant is awarding 15,000 scholarships this year.
President Alvi emphasized that the digital courses offered by Google and IRM will give Pakistani youth the skills they need to work in fast-growing industries like blockchain, communication technology, and cyber security.
He continued by saying that the effort will help Pakistan embrace the digital technology that has the potential to revolutionize the entire planet. According to Dr. Alvi, the impact on company operations would be a swift pace and efficient operation of firms due to the youths’ ability to give their skills on a worldwide scale. He urged students to take advantage of the Google courses and learn from them in order to advance their professions.
Read more: Google offers $100,000 worth of free online tech courses to every U.S. company
The president said in a video message that “the youth will be able to access several expanding digital sectors thanks to the digital courses being offered by Google and its partners.”
Opportunities in information technology (IT) may help to lower the nation’s youth unemployment rate, he emphasized.
President Alvi continued, “Women may also play a crucial part in the country’s economy with the use of these digital courses. The ICT industry in Pakistan has grown significantly during the previous ten years, with an average annual revenue growth rate of 20–30%. The time is now to seize these opportunities with attention and focus, stressed Noman Ahmed Said, CEO of SI Global Solutions.
Only 6% of Pakistan’s workforce, or roughly 4.7%, is currently employed in the ICT sector. Women will be empowered and inspired to pursue and succeed in many technology sectors by these career certificates and scholarships, he continued.
Waqas Ghani Kukaswadia, an ICT analyst at JS Global, stated that “digital literacy is vital to working in a world where computers and mobile devices are used on a regular basis for information transfer.” He continued, “In the modern world, businesses, employees, and students must swiftly learn to adapt to technology; this is a need for the majority of professions today.
He went on to say that although these courses don’t take the place of a university education, they do give students a foundational grasp of their chosen area. Thousands of professionals and students wishing to boost their earnings by using their spare time after day jobs or studies may find value in these self-paced Google courses.
According to ABCore CEO Khurram Shehzad in an interview with the Express Tribune, “This program will assist contribute to the formation of capabilities, but it represents a drop in the ocean. We need to do our own gap analysis (linkage between industry and academics), modify our curricula, and create the skill set that the sector requires, both locally and globally,” he advised.
