This is how Pakistan is closing its skills gap.

• Position: Youth workforce skills training for technological transformation

Like other emerging markets, Pakistan's rising investment in automation and technology has significant consequences for its businesses and youth workforce.

As the sixth most populous country in the world, with 64 percent of its population below the age 30 and youth unemployment rate as high as 8.5 percent, Pakistan urgently needs to prepare its youth workforce for the technological transformation underway. Skills training will be a gamechanger, considering 80% of Pakistan's youth labour force has low levels of education and a poor skills base.

A flawed public-public model

Skilling, reskilling and upskilling in Pakistan have traditionally been led by the public sector. This conventional model comes with its own challenges and limitations. There is a gap between the quality and relevance of training offered and the skilled labour force that industry actually needs, in market relevant and demand driven trades.

In reality, there are fewer private training opportunities, higher costs and limitations associated with public sector skills delivery and beneficiaries struggle to keep pace with technological shifts in fast evolving market trends.

This skills gap alongside a more pressing need to reskill, upskill and new skill the workforce to increase employability and meet the needs of the employers in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution inspired the Punjab Skills Development Fund to join the Reskilling Revolution and partner with the World Economic Forum on a Closing the Skills Gap Country Accelerator in Pakistan, named Parwaaz.

A multistakeholder approach takes flight

In the local context, Parwaaz means ''to take flight". Standing true to the spirit of the name, with the guidance of the most influential public and private-sector leaders, Parwaaz is developing a futuristic approach to reskilling the nation.

Parwaaz is a multi-stakeholder alliance representing both the public and private sector. It focuses on three areas: lifelong learning and upskilling, future-readiness and youth employability, and innovative skills funding models.

It has identified 6 priority sectors to fuel Pakistan's future growth: ICT, Financial Services, Textile, Hospitality, Retail and Services, Manufacturing and Light Engineering and Agriculture and Livestock. 42 of the largest employers in Pakistan are working together with the Punjab Skills Development Fund through Parwaaz to establish 6 sector-level incubators to identify reskilling, upskilling and new-skilling roles...