Islamabad, Pakistan: In an unprecedented feat that will transform Pakistan in terms of higher education, the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication (MoITT) collaborated with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Meta to introduce a multifaceted National AI Upskilling Program. In this joint venture, the faculty of universities nationwide will be provided with essential knowledge and skills in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), so that the best employees of the future could feel comfortable in meeting the needs of global digital economy.
The program was sealed through an event of high level meeting presided by Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja. It was attended by the chairman of HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, the chairman of NCEAC and senior officials of MoITT, the CEO of Pakistan Software Export Board and representatives of Atom Camp. The delegation speaking on behalf of Meta consisted of Sarim Aziz, the South, and Central Asia Public Policy Director.
Minister Khawaja took the initiative in the address as a case study in terms of public-private-academic synergy, highlighting the importance of being able to prepare the higher education sector of Pakistan in terms of a digitally-oriented future.
A Two-Track Ultimate Route to AI Competence:
The National AI Upskilling Program has taken a strategic two-tracked approach to meet various faculty requirements:
- More than 1,000 non-technical university faculty will be trained to gain insights into the larger implications and uses of AI.
- At least 250 to 500 technical faculty will be subjected to intensive certifications, such as LLaMA qualifications offered by Meta through Coursera, to achieve a thorough level of AI proficiency.
- Minister Khawaja emphasized that AI is much more than a technical instrument; it is an adaptive power that is about to touch sensitive areas such as learning, health, food, and governance.
Future Vision and Government Support
The MoITT has committed its support to the national rollout of this program, policy alignment and smooth integration with the imminent National AI Policy and other digital skills programs. This promise emphasizes the commitment of the government in developing AI-literate workers.
Moving forward, there a few strategic improvements that Minister Khawaja suggested to the program:
- AI learning processes with a student-focused approach: How to scale the project so that students gain immediate benefits.
- Localization of content: Ensuring the regional accessibility of AI training through the Urdu translation of materials and other local languages.
- Securing safe and responsible use of AI.
- Shared dashboards: Introducing tools to evaluate the progress in the program successfully.
- The creation of a long-term financial system to fund the continuous upskilling of the faculties.
The Minister expressed her gratitude to Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, NCEAC team and Meta leadership and partnership. She emphasized the necessity to empower faculty with the knowledge of Generative AI in order to create the future-ready, AI-literate workforce that will be able to succeed in the global digital economy.
This is the first collaboration of its type, which is an important step in placing Pakistan in the center of AI innovation and education.
