‘World is moving towards techno-economy & techno-politics’

Islamabad :Around 2 billion jobs will disappear by 2030 and 75 per cent of companies are going to vanish in the next 5 years, out of which 50 per cent are not born yet.

85 per cent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet. What does this data tell us? These statistics are indicating that we are not ready for the changing dynamics of the future employment. Most of the employers complain that they cannot find the right person for the job.

"Organisations spend almost 50 per cent of their expenditure on trainings and they are not happy about it. University graduates are not ready to cope with the industry. We need to get smart, innovative, creative, and work on the skill development of our youth," said Dr. Nadeem Ahmed Khan, Head of the Department of Business Studies, PIDE, Islamabad, while talking to Pak-Afghan Youth, during a workshop, organised by Afghan Studies Centre.

The data generated in the last two years is more than all the data ever produced in the entire human history, said Dr Khan. "We are living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution; boundaries are getting blurred between the physical, digital, and biological worlds.

It is a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies. These developments call for innovative approaches in the educational system. Education, as we know it, is obsolete. It still acts as a gateway to knowledge that is no longer needed with the rise of internet.

Critical thinking, complex problem solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, computational thinking, cognitive flexibility etc., are few of the ingredients we need to plug in the education machinery of our age. There is only one constant in the world i.e. change. We need to change with the changing patterns of the world around us. Thus, adaptability is the key to our survival," said Dr Khan. The 14th Pak-Afghan youth training workshop urged the youth from both countries to differentiate themselves from others and to brush up on their skills which are in demand so they can justify why they should be hired. Afghan Studies Centre is a sister organization of the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).

As a youth-based platform, ASC has been working for the skill development, capacity building, and inculcation of critical thinking in the youth of Pakistan and Afghanistan.