Sequencing skills and degrees

PAKISTAN’S education debate is stuck in a false choice: universities or vocational training. Successful economies never choose. They build both. The real question, one Pakistan can no longer afford to avoid, is sequencing: where should scarce public resources go first to deliver faster growth, better jobs, higher exports and rising incomes in an economy struggling with low productivity and limited fiscal space? This matters because Pakistan’s core economic constraint is not a shortage of talent. It is a shortage of productive capabilities. Employers struggle to find technicians, supervisors, machine operators, digital specialists and agricultural extension workers. Meanwhile, graduates with degrees but few practical skills struggle to find meaningful work. The problem is structural: education and training have not been aligned with the sectors where Pakistan has, or could build, comparative advantage. Economic history is clear. Countries do not innovate their way to prosperity before they learn to produce efficiently. They first build productive capacity, raise skills, increase incomes and then climb the value chain. South Korea, China and Vietnam all invested heavily in workforce capabilities long before they became hubs of research, innovation and advanced technology. Universities and technical training play different but complementary roles. Higher education fuels innovation. The US demonstrates how world-class universities and research institutions generate new technologies and entirely new industries. Technical and vocational skills convert ideas into commercially viable products and services. China’s rise was built not only on engineers and scientists but also on millions of skilled technicians, machinists and production specialists capable of transforming knowledge into reliable and affordable products at scale. Pakistan’s goal should not be to maximise degrees or training certificates. It should be to maximise productivity. Pakistan has not built either pill