By Mustafa Najoom
There is no stat to put to it, but approximately every social gathering in Pakistan involves at least one person talking about how someone from their family or friends is doing a degree in an IT field – unless they’re one of those folk where everyone in their family is in the medical field.
But why then do we not see a proportionate rise in the supply of skilled IT professionals in our country? Statistics suggest that only 20% of those who enroll in a tech degree end up pursuing a career in the sector – why?
“IT Mei Hai Paisa” is Gaper’s anthem to promote IT as a career path for a common person in Pakistan. No, it doesn’t mean money should be the only driving force behind your career decisions. It only serves to highlight the latent boom the industry is experiencing in our country in the form of startups, digitization of existing systems, and foreign investments (note how several startups have successfully raised funding rounds in recent years).
Tech shares in our stock market have also given stupendous returns in the form of capital gains, dividends, and bonuses over the past few years. In short, the demand for professional IT services is growing at an unprecedented pace, but there is inadequate supply to match it.
Gaper is a staff augmentation company that also trains software engineers in technical and communication skills. Their business model is designed to ensure that companies located anywhere can recruit a full-fledged team of remote software engineers to work for them for as long as required – just like an actual in-house team of engineers but without the additional costs.
This greatly helps to bridge the demand-supply gap. When companies do not have the time or finances to hire a team of software developers/engineers, Gaper steps in to help.
Gaper produced IT Mei Hai Paisa with the aim for every school kid and parent to listen to it. Most of our youth don’t consider IT as their first career choice, in contrast to countries like India, the Philippines, and Ukraine.
The interest in tech fields in these countries allowed them to grow at a relatively faster pace which has meant that their IT sectors have a much more robust standing on a global scale. While Pakistan has some catching up to do, it is now not due to the lack of businesses and opportunities, rather the dearth of experts in the field.
It is important to address the general notion in Pakistan that says that the IT sector is saturated with graduates. Too many CS graduates seek work in the sector but fail to find work. The issue here is the skills that universities are equipping these graduates with. Unfortunately, too many institutions have outdated syllabi that do not reflect the rapidly changing demands and growth in tech all over the world.
Technologies and programming languages that were relevant a decade ago are, at best, a basic requirement today, and at worst, completely outdated and useless. If most of our graduates come into the job market with these skills, we can indeed refer to it as being saturated – saturated with outdated, basic skills.
Gaper’s training programs seek to fill this skills gap. The global nature of the industry naturally means that our IT professionals need to match international standards where their competition is not the local job seekers, but people in this field of work all over the world.
Learning the right skills that are in demand reaps incredible dividends. Investors are prepared to invest and companies are ready to remunerate generously provided that one has the flexibility to learn and grow with the pace of today’s business world and tech environment.
Here is hoping that the country’s youth looks towards the tech industry as one that is not only lucrative but also incredibly rewarding with rich experiences and learning opportunities.
Mustafa is the co-founder at Gaper.io, a marketplace that connects the top 1% IT talent with companies across the globe.
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