According to the Unlocking Pakistan’s Digital Potential Report (2021), Pakistan is home to more than 300,000 IT professionals, producing over 25,000 IT graduates annually. Yet Pakistan is also facing a National Digital Skill Emergency. According to P@SHA Skills Requirement Report 2021, participating companies have shown the need of hiring approximately 20,000 resources in the next few months. According to a study by Gallup Pakistan, the top IT companies only hire 10% of graduates from lower-tier universities.
This represents a grave situation that can only be addressed through proactive efforts toward industry-academia collaboration, skills development programs, reskilling, and upskilling program initiatives by the relevant stakeholders. P@SHA has been working tirelessly to play its role in human capital development for the IT and ITeS industry. In the last year, we have closely worked with different stakeholders to highlight the skill-emergency in the IT industry. P@SHA’s Research Team has worked extensively to gather insights from academia and industry which can pave the way for future initiatives, programs, and collaboration opportunities.
The Industry-Academia Skills Gaps Report 2022 aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of the demand and supply of the universities and IT & ITeS companies of Pakistan. The objective was to present a birds-eye view from the IT industry perspective to understand their needs and demands regarding the skilled resources. The study also unveils the current skills analysis of the education sector and students of IT relevant degrees from top-tier universities in Pakistan.
This report confirms and captures gaps between industry requirements and university preferences using data from 100+ university students and 90+ IT companies. The data is further supplemented by interviews from 10 industry experts for a situational analysis, and 10 academic experts to provide recommendations and action items for bridging the skills gap.