Assessing the effectiveness of vocational training programs in Pakistan: an experimental study

Funding text 1: The authors acknowledge the support of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, extended under NRPU Project number P#11226. The authors acknowledge the support of Lt Col. (R) Rizwan Ahmed, TI(M), Deputy General Manager Business development and Career Services, Amantech.; Funding text 2: The world is yet feeling the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis and another crisis – coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), even greater in volume and intensity, is at the doorstep to shake the world economy. The COVID-19 outbreak is hitting world economies hard and creating sheer unemployment worldwide. This situation is increasingly putting challenges on the governments both in developed countries (DCs) and least developed countries (LDCs) to focus on the youth inclusiveness in the labor market. The need for such focus is even greater for the people in the age group of 15–24 who are neither continuing their education nor have entered into the job market (). Technical education and vocational training (TEVT), in this regard, can be a viable option to widen the employment horizon for youth who lagged due to the unavailability of resources or motivation to pursue tertiary education (; ). The statistics show that the countries with strong TEVT programs have remained successful in maintaining employment rates during and after the crisis. This acts as an impetus for the emerging and less developing countries to invest in TEVT to stimulate economic growth in their economies (). Presently, when the industries are at the verge the fourth industrial revolution at the one end and crisis due to COVID-19 at the other end, they face a highly challenging situation. In such a case, TEVT appears to be highly crucial to ignite the startups and to bridge the skills gaps (). It has been acknowledged globally that the workforce, industry and the overall economy require the successful implementation of carefully designed TEVT policies capable of producing the highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce to meet the increasingly advanced technologies in the world (). Several studies have been conducted to measure the outcome of technical and vocational education on employment opportunities and the level of income in developed economies. The results are ambiguous as some of the studies have reported positive effects of TEVT on the employment and the earnings of the graduates (); however, there are a few studies that suggest otherwise (e.g. ; ). Several studies (e.g. ; ; ) find tertiary education to have greater positive returns when compared to secondary education. Likewise, vocational education has been found to produce higher returns as compared to academic education (). On the contrary, the findings of some of the studies (e.g. ; ) show academic education possessing superiority over TEVT. These contradictory results may be due to the context specificity, which should be investigated (; ). The need of such study increases manifold in the presence of the fact that several developing countries have either already started or planning to start the reformation of their TEVT policies to cope with the labor market imbalances, economic crisis, changing business trends, technological innovations and upgradation (; ). A case in hand is Pakistan where recognizing the realized gains of TEVT globally, the country has introduced a TEVT reform support system funded by international donor agencies like Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There have been a couple of studies found in the literature that discuss the status and the prospects of TEVT in Pakistan (for example, ; ), but scant studies are evaluating the outcomes of TEVT on an individual in the context of South Asia including Pakistan. This study takes Pakistan as a case due to two major reasons. First, Pakistan's cultural ties and affinities are quite homogenous to other neighboring South Asian countries, namely India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (). Therefore, the finding accrued in the case of Pakistan can be generalized carefully in other South Asian countries. Second, Pakistan has been listed among the countries, which regularly receive foreign funding/aid to promote TEVT. Pakistan has 1,647 TEVT institutes, which include governmental vocational institutions, vocational training centers and apprentice training centers administered under federal and provincial agencies. Private technical training institutes and training within the industry to meet specific skill needs are also administered to impart technical and vocational skills (). Coupled with this, a huge share of the informal sector also exists which is traditionally known as the Ustaad-shagird system, which is an informal system of imparting vocation training in which an apprentice learns by doing and shadowing a professional. Ustaad is a master craftsman, and shagird is a trainee. The ustaads are usually moderately educated without having any formal training. They train the pupils in order to get assistance in minor tasks at a minimal or no cost. The trainees acquire skills by working 8–9 h per day for a few years, in which they are not paid in the initial two years. The trainee is benefitted by getting an opportunity to learn a skill without paying any tuition fee.

Funding text 1: The authors acknowledge the support of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, extended under NRPU Project number P#11226. The authors acknowledge the support of Lt Col. (R) Rizwan Ahmed, TI(M), Deputy General Manager Business development and Career Services, Amantech.; Funding text 2: The world is yet feeling the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis and another crisis – coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), even greater in volume and intensity, is at the doorstep to shake the world economy. The COVID-19 outbreak is hitting world economies hard and creating sheer unemployment worldwide. This situation is increasingly putting challenges on the governments both in developed countries (DCs) and least developed countries (LDCs) to focus on the youth inclusiveness in the labor market. The need for such focus is even greater for the people in the age group of 15–24 who are neither continuing their education nor have entered into the job market (). Technical education and vocational training (TEVT), in this regard, can be a viable option to widen the employment horizon for youth who lagged due to the unavailability of resources or motivation to pursue tertiary education (; ). The statistics show that the countries with strong TEVT programs have remained successful in maintaining employment rates during and after the crisis. This acts as an impetus for the emerging and less developing countries to invest in TEVT to stimulate economic growth in their economies (). Presently, when the industries are at the verge the fourth industrial revolution at the one end and crisis due to COVID-19 at the other end, they face a highly challenging situation. In such a case, TEVT appears to be highly crucial to ignite the startups and to bridge the skills gaps (). It has been acknowledged globally that the workforce, industry and the overall economy require the successful implementation of carefully designed TEVT policies capable of producing the highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce to meet the increasingly advanced technologies in the world (). Several studies have been conducted to measure the outcome of technical and vocational education on employment opportunities and the level of income in developed economies. The results are ambiguous as some of the studies have reported positive effects of TEVT on the employment and the earnings of the graduates (); however, there are a few studies that suggest otherwise (e.g. ; ). Several studies (e.g. ; ; ) find tertiary education to have greater positive returns when compared to secondary education. Likewise, vocational education has been found to produce higher returns as compared to academic education (). On the contrary, the findings of some of the studies (e.g. ; ) show academic education possessing superiority over TEVT. These contradictory results may be due to the context specificity, which should be investigated (; ). The need of such study increases manifold in the presence of the fact that several developing countries have either already started or planning to start the reformation of their TEVT policies to cope with the labor market imbalances, economic crisis, changing business trends, technological innovations and upgradation (; ). A case in hand is Pakistan where recognizing the realized gains of TEVT globally, the country has introduced a TEVT reform support system funded by international donor agencies like Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There have been a couple of studies found in the literature that discuss the status and the prospects of TEVT in Pakistan (for example, ; ), but scant studies are evaluating the outcomes of TEVT on an individual in the context of South Asia including Pakistan. This study takes Pakistan as a case due to two major reasons. First, Pakistan's cultural ties and affinities are quite homogenous to other neighboring South Asian countries, namely India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (). Therefore, the finding accrued in the case of Pakistan can be generalized carefully in other South Asian countries. Second, Pakistan has been listed among the countries, which regularly receive foreign funding/aid to promote TEVT. Pakistan has 1,647 TEVT institutes, which include governmental vocational institutions, vocational training centers and apprentice training centers administered under federal and provincial agencies. Private technical training institutes and training within the industry to meet specific skill needs are also administered to impart technical and vocational skills (). Coupled with this, a huge share of the informal sector also exists which is traditionally known as the Ustaad-shagird system, which is an informal system of imparting vocation training in which an apprentice learns by doing and shadowing a professional. Ustaad is a master craftsman, and shagird is a trainee. The ustaads are usually moderately educated without having any formal training. They train the pupils in order to get assistance in minor tasks at a minimal or no cost. The trainees acquire skills by working 8–9 h per day for a few years, in which they are not paid in the initial two years. The trainee is benefitted by getting an opportunity to learn a skill without paying any tuition fee.

Funding text 1: The authors acknowledge the support of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, extended under NRPU Project number P#11226. The authors acknowledge the support of Lt Col. (R) Rizwan Ahmed, TI(M), Deputy General Manager Business development and Career Services, Amantech.; Funding text 2: The world is yet feeling the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis and another crisis – coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), even greater in volume and intensity, is at the doorstep to shake the world economy. The COVID-19 outbreak is hitting world economies hard and creating sheer unemployment worldwide. This situation is increasingly putting challenges on the governments both in developed countries (DCs) and least developed countries (LDCs) to focus on the youth inclusiveness in the labor market. The need for such focus is even greater for the people in the age group of 15–24 who are neither continuing their education nor have entered into the job market (). Technical education and vocational training (TEVT), in this regard, can be a viable option to widen the employment horizon for youth who lagged due to the unavailability of resources or motivation to pursue tertiary education (; ). The statistics show that the countries with strong TEVT programs have remained successful in maintaining employment rates during and after the crisis. This acts as an impetus for the emerging and less developing countries to invest in TEVT to stimulate economic growth in their economies (). Presently, when the industries are at the verge the fourth industrial revolution at the one end and crisis due to COVID-19 at the other end, they face a highly challenging situation. In such a case, TEVT appears to be highly crucial to ignite the startups and to bridge the skills gaps (). It has been acknowledged globally that the workforce, industry and the overall economy require the successful implementation of carefully designed TEVT policies capable of producing the highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce to meet the increasingly advanced technologies in the world (). Several studies have been conducted to measure the outcome of technical and vocational education on employment opportunities and the level of income in developed economies. The results are ambiguous as some of the studies have reported positive effects of TEVT on the employment and the earnings of the graduates (); however, there are a few studies that suggest otherwise (e.g. ; ). Several studies (e.g. ; ; ) find tertiary education to have greater positive returns when compared to secondary education. Likewise, vocational education has been found to produce higher returns as compared to academic education (). On the contrary, the findings of some of the studies (e.g. ; ) show academic education possessing superiority over TEVT. These contradictory results may be due to the context specificity, which should be investigated (; ). The need of such study increases manifold in the presence of the fact that several developing countries have either already started or planning to start the reformation of their TEVT policies to cope with the labor market imbalances, economic crisis, changing business trends, technological innovations and upgradation (; ). A case in hand is Pakistan where recognizing the realized gains of TEVT globally, the country has introduced a TEVT reform support system funded by international donor agencies like Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There have been a couple of studies found in the literature that discuss the status and the prospects of TEVT in Pakistan (for example, ; ), but scant studies are evaluating the outcomes of TEVT on an individual in the context of South Asia including Pakistan. This study takes Pakistan as a case due to two major reasons. First, Pakistan's cultural ties and affinities are quite homogenous to other neighboring South Asian countries, namely India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (). Therefore, the finding accrued in the case of Pakistan can be generalized carefully in other South Asian countries. Second, Pakistan has been listed among the countries, which regularly receive foreign funding/aid to promote TEVT. Pakistan has 1,647 TEVT institutes, which include governmental vocational institutions, vocational training centers and apprentice training centers administered under federal and provincial agencies. Private technical training institutes and training within the industry to meet specific skill needs are also administered to impart technical and vocational skills (). Coupled with this, a huge share of the informal sector also exists which is traditionally known as the Ustaad-shagird system, which is an informal system of imparting vocation training in which an apprentice learns by doing and shadowing a professional. Ustaad is a master craftsman, and shagird is a trainee. The ustaads are usually moderately educated without having any formal training. They train the pupils in order to get assistance in minor tasks at a minimal or no cost. The trainees acquire skills by working 8–9 h per day for a few years, in which they are not paid in the initial two years. The trainee is benefitted by getting an opportunity to learn a skill without paying any tuition fee.

Funding text 1: The authors acknowledge the support of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, extended under NRPU Project number P#11226. The authors acknowledge the support of Lt Col. (R) Rizwan Ahmed, TI(M), Deputy General Manager Business development and Career Services, Amantech.; Funding text 2: The world is yet feeling the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis and another crisis – coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), even greater in volume and intensity, is at the doorstep to shake the world economy. The COVID-19 outbreak is hitting world economies hard and creating sheer unemployment worldwide. This situation is increasingly putting challenges on the governments both in developed countries (DCs) and least developed countries (LDCs) to focus on the youth inclusiveness in the labor market. The need for such focus is even greater for the people in the age group of 15–24 who are neither continuing their education nor have entered into the job market (). Technical education and vocational training (TEVT), in this regard, can be a viable option to widen the employment horizon for youth who lagged due to the unavailability of resources or motivation to pursue tertiary education (; ). The statistics show that the countries with strong TEVT programs have remained successful in maintaining employment rates during and after the crisis. This acts as an impetus for the emerging and less developing countries to invest in TEVT to stimulate economic growth in their economies (). Presently, when the industries are at the verge the fourth industrial revolution at the one end and crisis due to COVID-19 at the other end, they face a highly challenging situation. In such a case, TEVT appears to be highly crucial to ignite the startups and to bridge the skills gaps (). It has been acknowledged globally that the workforce, industry and the overall economy require the successful implementation of carefully designed TEVT policies capable of producing the highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce to meet the increasingly advanced technologies in the world (). Several studies have been conducted to measure the outcome of technical and vocational education on employment opportunities and the level of income in developed economies. The results are ambiguous as some of the studies have reported positive effects of TEVT on the employment and the earnings of the graduates (); however, there are a few studies that suggest otherwise (e.g. ; ). Several studies (e.g. ; ; ) find tertiary education to have greater positive returns when compared to secondary education. Likewise, vocational education has been found to produce higher returns as compared to academic education (). On the contrary, the findings of some of the studies (e.g. ; ) show academic education possessing superiority over TEVT. These contradictory results may be due to the context specificity, which should be investigated (; ). The need of such study increases manifold in the presence of the fact that several developing countries have either already started or planning to start the reformation of their TEVT policies to cope with the labor market imbalances, economic crisis, changing business trends, technological innovations and upgradation (; ). A case in hand is Pakistan where recognizing the realized gains of TEVT globally, the country has introduced a TEVT reform support system funded by international donor agencies like Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There have been a couple of studies found in the literature that discuss the status and the prospects of TEVT in Pakistan (for example, ; ), but scant studies are evaluating the outcomes of TEVT on an individual in the context of South Asia including Pakistan. This study takes Pakistan as a case due to two major reasons. First, Pakistan's cultural ties and affinities are quite homogenous to other neighboring South Asian countries, namely India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (). Therefore, the finding accrued in the case of Pakistan can be generalized carefully in other South Asian countries. Second, Pakistan has been listed among the countries, which regularly receive foreign funding/aid to promote TEVT. Pakistan has 1,647 TEVT institutes, which include governmental vocational institutions, vocational training centers and apprentice training centers administered under federal and provincial agencies. Private technical training institutes and training within the industry to meet specific skill needs are also administered to impart technical and vocational skills (). Coupled with this, a huge share of the informal sector also exists which is traditionally known as the Ustaad-shagird system, which is an informal system of imparting vocation training in which an apprentice learns by doing and shadowing a professional. Ustaad is a master craftsman, and shagird is a trainee. The ustaads are usually moderately educated without having any formal training. They train the pupils in order to get assistance in minor tasks at a minimal or no cost. The trainees acquire skills by working 8–9 h per day for a few years, in which they are not paid in the initial two years. The trainee is benefitted by getting an opportunity to learn a skill without paying any tuition fee.