Pakistani youth should develop skills

Skills development initiatives must be fostered and pursued in letter and spirit. Schools, colleges, and universities must create a harmonious blend of skills development combined with classroom lectures. This will broaden the mental horizon of the students and facilitate their learning. Emphasizing learning through textbooks is not the proper approach. These textbooks provide information that may not be parallel to the practical learning and experience gathered by working in a professional environment in Pakistan.
Skills, on the other hand, remain with the learner throughout their professional journey. Moreover, they can use the skills to begin a freelance job to earn a side income or establish their start-up and become an entrepreneur. The United Nations celebrates World Youth Skills Day on July 15 to highlight the importance of developing skills among the youth. This article emphasizes the importance of learning skills in the context of World Youth Skills Day.
Skills are developed through continuous learning. Children and the youth should be encouraged to learn a skill or a set of skills. This will help them in various ways. First, learning a skill will broaden their minds as they will concentrate on learning something new. Second, they will adapt to the new skill and learn adaptability – a skill required in the professional world when working as a part of a team. Third, they will practically perform the skill to gain experience and become a part of the experiential learning process.
Skills are an important facet of our life. Unfortunately, it has remained overshadowed because of the significance that adults give to academic studies. Indeed, textbooks must be read to complete one’s education, however, skills will help the child or the youth even before they graduate.
Imagine a student (Student A), who finds a job after graduation. This student will learn skills on the job and will begin a career only after landing on the job. Now imagine another student (Student B), who begins learning a skill when he was a student of matriculation. He learned coding and began developing websites for clients that he found online. He has at least six years of freelance experience working before he graduates and finds a job. The employer will prefer Student B over Student A as the former has practical work experience.
The same case can be applied to graduates from all fields of studies. Any experience is better than no experience. The youth should realize that the intense competition in the corporate world does not differentiate between students. Grades and CGPAs matter only until the interviews are conducted.
Once the graduates become employees, they need to become a part of the system. They need to learn the skills on the job. Those who adapt quickly and learn the skills in less time can climb the ladder of success. Graduates bringing a few years of experience with them as a freelancer will give them a head start as compared to their colleagues, who can be business graduates.
The youth must understand this fact and train themselves accordingly. The youth should spend time reading and absorbing content. They should research to find the skills they can learn, acquire, pursue and earn from. The online marketplace presents various opportunities for aspiring youth to sell their services in exchange for earnings. They can use social media to promote their services.
The youth needs to learn skills including content writing, graphic designing, coding, data entry, search engine optimization (SEO), accounting, and finance, among others. They must focus on their interest to find skills(s), learn and acquire them, and sell them by offering a service to fulfill the needs of their market.