Welcome to the Skillls Economy

We Have Been Counting the Wrong Things

We count students.

We count degrees.

We count training programmes.

We count certificates.

We count how many Pakistanis leave for jobs overseas.

We don’t ask :

What value did all that education and training actually create?

Did someone's income increase?

Did an employer want the skill?

Could the qualification travel across borders?

Did training actually lead to a job?

And are we preparing people for the jobs that will exist tomorrow or the jobs that existed yesterday?

These are the questions behind The Skills Economy.

Pakistan has one of the world's great potential economic assets: millions of young people entering working age.

But youth is not automatically an economic dividend.

Skills turn population into productivity.

This publication will follow the numbers, challenge conventional wisdom and look beyond Pakistan at where the world's jobs are moving and whether our people are ready for them.

Sometimes the conclusions may be uncomfortable.

Good.

Those are usually the conversations worth having.

Welcome to The Skills Economy.