Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, located in northwestern region of Pakistan is popularly known as the ‘land of hospitality’ and a hub of tourism. With its rich history and Special Economic Zones setup to attract local and multi-national companies, the province is set to welcome investors to benefit from the region’s untapped potential.

With this lies an opportunity for mass employment and skills enhancement, and the potential for increased productivity and economic prosperity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

To bring this to fruition, effective, demand-led technical vocational education and training (TVET) is critical.

Experience shows however, that private sector partners often have limited capacity and opportunity to engage with TVET policy and programme development. This can impact on the design and delivery of industry relevant education and training programmes, resulting in barriers to the successful transition from training to employment.

To mitigate this challenge in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an international skills partnership made up of the British Council, People 1st International and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KPEZDMC) have joined forces to help build the capacity of Pakistani stakeholders to conduct technical vocational education and training (TVET) planning through effective public-private partnerships.

The main purpose of the collaboration is to support the introduction of an industry advisory/taskforce group (IATG) to promote and implement a sectoral approach to skills in the food and beverages sector in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zone. A critical role of the IATG will be to engage key industry partners, providing a platform to identify industry demanded skills, including those required to adapt to new technology. This will allow partners to address skills gaps and promote the transition to employment.

Taking this approach supports targeted TVET reform interventions based on sector need, as well as helping to:

• Develop specific skills needed to maintain and improve sector productivity and competitiveness​: Identifying and closing skills gaps, due to its ability to bring industry and academia together to reorient programmes and courses and meet skills demands.​
• Provide a platform for shared understanding of sector skills needs: Based on a proven model adopted across a range of countries that enables industry to drive the skills agenda and ensure training providers have the capacity and capability to deliver demand-led skills solutions.
• Promote public-private partnerships (PPP) at a sectoral level (employers, TVET providers, development partners, government bodies and agencies) that develop shared workforce solutions: Developing specific skills needed to maintain and improve sector productivity and competitiveness​

The first series of workshops of the IATG was held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this month and was well attended by public and private sector who had a strong passion to drive forward an effective sectoral skills approach for the food and beverage sector.

Ahead of these sessions, the partnership met with key employers and industry bodies to present and test the project approach and promote IATG engagement. The meetings provided an opportunity to conduct wider discussions advocating for investment in skills development to drive productivity and profitability.

The meetings provided an opportunity to conduct wider discussions advocating for investment in skills development to drive productivity and profitability.

With an outline action plan now in place, the next stage to drive forward this collaborative and forward-thinking initiative will be to devise the full business plan and operationalise it over the coming months. A knowledge-share visit to the UK is also planned for February 2024 to showcase UK approaches and experiences in developing industry-led skills partnerships.