NATA Vocational Institute (NVI)

NVI gives young people and women practical skills to earn a respectable living.

Around 3.5 million young people enter Pakistan's job market every year, yet a 2015 reform-programme factsheet counted only about 476,850 places in formal technical and vocational training. A great many young people therefore never receive proper training.

Most learn a trade informally through the traditional ustad-shagird (master and apprentice) system. It works, but it is unstructured, and recognised certificates or standards are often missing.

Technical work is also looked down on by many families, who push children toward general degrees even when graduates struggle to find jobs. Experts say courses often do not match what employers need, which creates a skills gap.

Women face an even bigger gap. They make up only about a fifth of the labour force while men make up more than eighty percent, and Pakistan ranked 145th out of 146 countries in the 2022 Global Gender Gap report. Low literacy, limited mobility and social norms keep many women out of paid work, so many work at home for very little. Vocational training for women is repeatedly recommended as a practical answer, which is why NVI also runs Empowering Women.

Summarised in our own words from public sources: Wikipedia: Gender gap in Pakistan, TVET Reform Support Programme factsheet. Figures change over time.