I came in Pakistan last year first time for a business trip and met officials, entrepreneurs and students in different cities and got surprised the talent possessing the youth of the country who can change the destiny of the nation with their knowledge, innovation and hardworking, Dr Sarfraz Alam, IT Security Specialist, said in an exclusive interview to The News Tribe.
I realized the potential of the people associated with ICT industry and their contribution in the worldwide economies including myself who is running a group of companies in six Asian countries from UAE.
I was overwhelmed with development in progress in IT industry but not satisfied because the population of youngsters is too much, on the other hand, their input in the country development particularly in IT field is limited. Therefore, I visited universities where a significant number of students are studying in the computer sciences and IT departments and found the reasons where they are lagging to establish a successful career presently.
The curriculum and trainings are not being provided to Pakistan’s students at par with global standards, therefore they can’t make a difference in their fields despite focused vision, commitment and hardworking.
The IT is the dynamic world where people need to change themselves with latest technology for survival and progress but if you are reluctant to transform yourself with new trends and development you will be left behind in the world, Dr Sarfraz added, who is CEO of TEXPO Group of Companies.
They are none who can guide them towards the technology trends and their skills hence majority of the students do not go for innovation and creativity but choose easier path of career through job and projects.
I decided at that moment to mentor Pakistan students and devised a system to groom their skills and performance for long-term through setting up a skill development program for long-term basis and it is all that I can do as best rather than interacting with government officials and teachers who are old-fashioned in thinking.
I made an online test to grant 25 scholarships last year and invited students of students six state universities for participation including NED, Sindh University Jamashoro, NED University, Karachi University, Balochistan, Peshawar and Karakoram.
The test was conducted online on May 10, 2012 and the results were eye-opening for me and scholars. The successful students are very talented as majority of them secured 90 percent marks. Besides 75 percent marks were obtained by average students against 33 percent passing marks.
These third-year students will be provided financial assistance and mentoring to pursue their career in the emerging fields of ICTs as per their area of interest and ability to grow through innovation and creativity.
The students will be providing mentoring by our scholars who are the best in different fields of IT on bi-monthly basis through Skype, and will guide them towards advanced technology and their learning patterns under mentoring a talent stage.
The students who want to acquire extra qualification in Microsoft and CISCO certification will be supported financially by our company. Later they will be provided six months paid internship at TEXPO on their aptitude basis in different fields of IT under train a talent stage.
In the last stage of guide a talent, we will give them professional platforms to excel in their fields through innovation and creativity mainly in the field of ICT, which are diversified and highly complex in nature.
I am a Pakistani and I wanted to groom the explored talent here, train and guide them in their career selection. These one-year scholarships will be an annual feature because I want to help more and more students under my capacity and students will be polished with the skill development system that will be going on in the future.
The global IT community respects and praises the high quality of Pakistani students as they acknowledge Pakistani IT industry as credible sector. I believe the IT industry will bring positive image in the world for Pakistan through their works, skills and innovation.
IT professionals can greatly help Pakistan in improving its image in the world as our IT professionals are in demand world over due to their talents and high calibre and scholarships program is as an effort to highlight Pakistani IT talent to the outside world.
Dr Sarfraz said that as an effort to highlight Pakistani IT talent to the outside world, I have brought vice presidents of top US IT companies including PANDUIT, NTEST, and CANNON Tech.
They are our partners in different countries and working for big companies, having an annual turnover of $ 29 billion, but the most important thing they have been impressed greatly with the talent of Pakistan and vowed to keep visiting the country again in future.
