Pakistan to test uni students for real-world tech skills • The Register

Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) has introduced a competency test for students who take degrees in IT, to assess whether they emerge with skills employers will find useful.

The commission announced the National Skill Competency Test on Wednesday, and told universities it’s needed “to align academic outcomes with the rapidly evolving demands of the global technology sector.”

Pakistan’s prime minister, Ministry of Technology and Telecommunication, Software Export Board, and Software Houses Association all supported the new exam, which students will sit towards the end of their degrees. The HEC has asked universities to ensure all students sit the test.

Students who do well will be offered priority access to internships, apprenticeships, and industry certifications. HEC will rank universities based on their students’ performance on the test.

The regulator is involved in the formulation of curricula used in Pakistan’s universities, so those rankings won’t necessarily reflect on each institution’s teaching choices, although it has clear potential to assess their effectiveness.

HEC says the test is needed because it will help Pakistan’s technology industry.

Pakistan is the world’s fifth-most-populous nation, so has considerable domestic need for technology workers. The nation is also trying to establish itself as an exporter of technology services, an industry its government feels has enormous potential.

Part of Pakistan’s plan is to encourage freelance technology workers to use gig work platforms to find offshore clients, a scheme that, as of 2020, the nation’s government once believed could bring in $5 billion of fees every year. That ambition proved unachievable, as by 2025 total annual IT services revenue was just $3.8 billion. By way of comparison, that’s less than any of India’s big four IT services companies – Infosys, HCL, TCS and Wipro – make in a year, while only Wipro earned less in its last reported quarter.

Educators, industry groups, and employers never stop arguing about how best to create job-ready graduates. Academics typically argue that understanding CompSci fundamentals means students can adapt to the needs of a workplace. Vendors argue that embedding courses on their technology in university curriculums means students can mix broad concepts with practical skills.

Pakistan is now putting those competing ideas – pardon the pun – to the test. ®