* * * It is highly paradoxical that in a developing country such as Pakistan, we are experiencing serious skill shortages and, at the same time, high rates of open and under employment. A lot has already been said about the causes of the mismatch between the skills required by the economy and the skills generated by the educational institutions.
In this paper, I am also not going to focus on technical and vocational skills such as carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers, automobile, air conditioning, refrigeration mechanics, medical technicians, nurses, foremen, etc. but mostly on higher skills such as needed by the I.T. and telecommunications industry, aviation industry, financial sector, accountancy, engineering goods industry, infrastructure industries, bio-medical sciences and bio-medical engineering, media industry, etc.