Bridging the gap between degree and skill

A degree opens the door, but only a skill lets you walk through it. In the bustling corridors of Pakistan’s universities, a quiet crisis brews. Every year, hundreds of thousands of students don their caps and gowns, clutching hard-earned degrees, only to step into a job market where, according to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, nearly 31% of graduates remain unemployed, their qualifications failing to meet market demands. The problem is not a lack of education, but a profound disconnect between the skills acquired and the skills demanded. The sacred scroll of a degree, once a guaranteed ticket to prosperity, is no longer enough. The new currency is competence.
While precise, finalized data for the calendar year 2025 is still under compilation by the Higher Education Commission, the most recent authoritative figures provide a clear trend. In 2023, the total number of graduates from both public and private sector universities in Pakistan stood at over five hundred thousand. Based on annual growth projections and HEC reports, the figure for 2025 is estimated to be between five hundred and fifty thousand to six hundred thousand graduates. This staggering annual output underscores the urgency of aligning academic output with economic needs, especially when a World Bank report indicates that only 8% of Pakistani vocational training graduates are considered employable by international standards. We are producing graduates in volume, but the question remains: are we equipping them for value?
The global economy has rendered the old paradigm obsolete. Employers, from Lahore’s tech startups to Karachi’s manufacturing giants, are vocal about their plight: a surplus of applicants with theoretical knowledge, and a dire shortage of individuals with practical, actionable skills. A survey by the Employers Federation of Pakistan revealed that over 65% of businesses cite a severe shortage of technically skilled applicants as their primary hiring constraint. This is not a uniquely Pakistani dilemma, but our response to it will define our economic future. The world’s most dynamic economies have built their resurgence on the backbone of robust Technical and Vocational Education and Training systems. The focus has shifted from mere credentialism to Competency-Based Training, a model that defines specific, measurable skills a trainee must demonstrably master, regardless of the time spent in a classroom.
Look East, and the lessons are clear. China’s metamorphosis into the world’s factory and now a tech superpower was engineered through a deliberate, state-driven overhaul of its technical education system, which now produces over 11 million skilled graduates annually from its vocational institutes. The country established a vast network of vocational colleges and polytechnics, working in lockstep with industry leaders. Curricula are designed around real-time industrial feedback, with students spending as much as half their time in workshops and on factory floors. This demand-driven model created the skilled workforce that powered its infrastructural and manufacturing miracles.
Similarly, the renowned German dual education system, which combines apprenticeships with formal schooling, found fertile ground in Malaysia. In recent decades, Malaysia aggressively reformed its technical sector, establishing specialized institutes in partnership with global corporations. By the early 2020s, this push had resulted in over 70% of Malaysian secondary students enrolling in TVET streams, a stark contrast to Pakistan’s figures. By partnering with leading technology firms, they ensured training modules matched the technological evolution of sectors like advanced manufacturing and engineering. This was pivotal in moving Malaysia up the value chain from a low-cost producer to a high-tech hub.
The Philippines provides another compelling example of strategic, demand-driven training. Recognizing its demographic advantage, the nation strategically cultivated its technical education system to become a global leader in providing skilled service professionals. By aligning curricula with international standards, the country now deploys over 1.8 million highly skilled overseas Filipino workers annually, whose remittances account for nearly 9% of the nation’s GDP. This focus on Competency-Based Training ensured Filipino workers were not just numerous, but precisely skilled and globally competitive, contributing significantly to national remittances and economic stability.
The common thread in these success stories is the dissolution of barriers between the classroom and the workplace. Education ceases to be a monolithic phase of life and becomes a continuous dialogue with industry. This Competency-Based Training model ensures that a graduate in mechatronics can actually troubleshoot an automated assembly line, and a diploma holder in hospitality management understands the granular details of international guest services.
For Pakistan, the path forward requires a fundamental reorientation. Our substantial annual graduate output represents not a burden, but a phenomenal raw potential. The task is to refine it. This necessitates a paradigm shift where the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission and the Higher Education Commission do not work in silos, but in concert with chambers of commerce and industry associations. Sector-specific councils must be empowered to dictate curriculum development. Apprenticeship programs, long dormant, need to be revitalized and incentivized for businesses, especially when Pakistan has less than 30,000 active apprentices nationwide, compared to Germany’s 1.3 million. The very measure of an institution’s success should shift from its research publications alone to the employability and starting salaries of its graduates.
The goal is not to diminish the value of a university degree, which provides critical analytical thinking and a broad knowledge base. Rather, it is to elevate the status of technical and vocational qualifications to their rightful place, as equal and often more immediately relevant credentials. A welder certified to international standards should command the same societal respect and earning potential as a bachelor’s degree holder in a saturated field. This is not a lowering of standards, but a raising of expectations for practical mastery.
The challenge is immense, but the blueprint is clear. As another cohort of several hundred thousand graduates prepares to enter the market in 2025, the question for policymakers, educators, and industry leaders is whether these young minds will be armed with obsolete knowledge or in-demand skills. This demands a curriculum in constant conversation with the market, integrating disciplines like data analytics (Power BI, Python), artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing, advanced manufacturing (CNC, robotics), precision agriculture, and modern project management alongside traditional degrees, fields where global talent shortages are projected to reach 85 million workers by 2030, according to Korn Ferry.
The future of Pakistan’s economy will be written not only in the lecture halls of its universities but in the workshops, labs, and on-the-job training centres that can bridge the fatal gap between learning and earning. The spirit of the age demands not just higher education, but higher, tangible competence.