Ahsan Iqbal Calls on IT Experts to Uplift IT Sector

The Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, has enjoined IT experts from academia, the industry, and government organizations to synergize for the holistic development of Pakistan’s IT sector.

He said this while speaking at a roundtable on Building Human Capital for Digital Revolution organized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the ministry and academic diaspora.

The main thrust of the roundtable was to build human capital for a digital revolution in Pakistan by bridging the gap between industry needs and the curricula taught to ultimately enhances the employability of IT graduates, boost IT exports, and reduce the critical software and systems import bill.

The brainstorming session was primarily aimed at garnering the views of IT experts from academia and industry to align the IT and Computer Science curricula with industry needs and create a pathway for the growth of the country’s IT sector. It was attended by a large number of IT professionals, including faculty members and Project Directors of National Centres of Excellence, as well as heads and representatives of local and international IT companies.

The speakers offered suggestions on how to ensure industry-readiness of the university graduates, build IT and CS faculty capacity to bring them on par with the latest developments and knowledge, strengthen academia-industry linkages, the make HEC and National Computing Education and Accreditation Council’s regulations more effective, and promote applied research.

The forum also suggested inculcating the applied aspect of IT and CS degrees through industry exposure early in studies, and that the final year projects (FYP) must be industry problem-solving oriented.

Minister Iqbal called for the constitution of a joint academia-industry working group to define the future of action, assign responsibilities, and set timeframes for various tasks and projects of the IT sector’s all-inclusive development.

“We need to ensure that our digital workforce should be a problem solver,” he urged.

Minister Iqbal also emphasized that the Pakistani youth needs to be motivated to identify the problems in their fields and persevere to solve them by fully exploiting the IT potential. He also underpinned that universities need to impart education besides inculcating skills to enable the youth to learn the latest techniques, be well-groomed, and have the best entrepreneurial and communication skills that will enable them readily employable.

Highlighting the importance of progressing on the IT frontiers for Pakistan’s prosperity, the minister said that the uninterrupted execution of plans and policies is imperative and stated that no country can progress unless it witnesses political stability and continuity of policies.

He also stressed the need for the frequent organization of such sessions and uniting the academia, industry, and IT professionals to keep abreast of the latest trends and developments in the sector and prepare the youth for a digital revolution.

The Acting Chairperson/Executive Director of the HEC, Dr. Shaista Sohail, affirmed that the HEC is cognizant of the ever-changing needs of IT and Computing Sciences education. She underscored the need for monitoring the ever-changing market dynamics and improving the entire ecosystem around the IT/CS sector.

Dr. Sohail also assured the roundtable participants that the HEC will always support the IT experts from academia and industry in their efforts to align the Computing Sciences and related fields’ curricula with their own, domestic, and global market requirements. She enlighten the forum on the HEC’s mandate regarding the development of curricula and highlighted the role of the National Computing Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) and the National Curriculum Revision Committees (NCRCs).

She added that the HEC is committed to facilitating all the stakeholders to bring about the change required to keep up with the world in the IT/CS sector.

The CEOs, heads, and representative of major IT enterprises expressed their views on the gaps, challenges, and opportunities in Pakistan’s IT/CS sector. The participants were informed that the Computing Sciences curricula are in line with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) standards, and the HEC, with the Ministry of IT, has started negotiation on the NCEAC Act to enable Pakistan to sign the Seoul Accord on Computing Education. They were apprised that the Pakistani Higher Education Institutions produce 50,000 IT graduates every year.

The participants stressed the need for making the FYPs of Computing Sciences students productive by linking them with the real-world industry problem instead of picking up theoretical and hypothetical ideas. They gave a proposal for developing a web portal or setting up a platform for the enlistment of the IT industry to help allocate students FYPs within their setups or under direct supervision so that employable graduates can be made available to the industry and the government.

Additional Secretary Ministry IT, Ayesha Humaira; CEO Pakistan Software Export Board, Usman Nasir; CEO Ignite, Asim S Hussain; CEO Nayatel, Wahaj us Siraj; Secretary General P@SHA, Hira Zainab; CEO Epic Games, Fahim Mehta; Chancellor CASE, Dr. Shoab Ahmed; Rector Virtual University, Dr. Arshad Saleem Bhatti; Chief Commercial Officer Pakistan Special Economic Zones Authority, Javed Iqbal; Director (Ecosystem Development) Huawei Pakistan, Li Wenbo; and other notable figures from the academia and IT industry expressed their views on the occasion.