Any thinking and people pro-active government needs to make optimum use of its workforce and that needs creation of vocational centres in a society like ours. The demand-supply gap of skilled workforce still persists in our country, said some leading economists.
This year, the government has achieved budgetary targets in some fundamental areas but in some important sectors it has missed the targets. This was partly because of lack of proper attention and lack of skilled workforce.
If the government takes the matter seriously, the country may not even need to hire highly paid foreign experts, which eventually becomes an extra burden on the national exchequer. The country is faced with both shortages of manpower and skills, creating gap in the key modern technologies. This reduces optimum operation of plants and machinery, they noted.
Many experts and professors in different institutions were of the view that if the government increases the number of vocational centres the poor children will be able to get better jobs. Many parents suggest that during the summer vacation the provincial government should arrange vocational training programmes, which can help the children utilising time in a healthy way.
It was noted that one of the major constraints in achieving rapid industrialisation in the country is lack of skilled workers. A serious constraint has been low productivity level in the country, economists said. Without the development of a big skilled workforce-base it is not possible to compete or to meet global challenges.
An efficient and quality supply-chain is important for local industry which is missing, partly due to insufficient scale of fund and partly due to inferior raw material and also due to lack of skilled workforce. These are the minimum requirement to come anyway near to global competition, increase exports, they said.
The facilities provided by the government are inadequate. In the Annual Development Plan it was admitted that urban industrial centres could not accommodate the expected rise in the industrial and manufacturing activities.
Meanwhile, the widening trade deficit and increasing inflationary pressure may create more difficulties for the government in the next fiscal year. These are also the main challenges that the government must tackle boldly, they said.
The government is importing costly machinery to accelerate the progress of works, although some progress has been made and many products are manufactured locally, but in some sectors, lack of proper certification on quality and safety are hindering wider acceptance of such products both locally and globally.
Strategic planning of manufacturing industry with local skilled work force at least up to middle management level is necessary to meet the objectives of rapid industrialisation in the country, they said.