Islamabad, December 14, 2023: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Microsoft Pakistan signed on Thursday the HEC-Microsoft Education Transformation Agreement (ETA) to enhance the capabilities and skills of higher education institutions, faculties, IT administrators, and students by providing them with access to the latest technologies and training.
The agreement signing ceremony was also marked by the launch of Imagine Cup 2024, Founders Hub and AI Skilling initiatives.
Member IT (HEC) Dr. Jamil Ahmad and Microsoft Country Lead Mr. Jibran Jamshed signed the agreement.
Federal Secretary Ministry of IT Mr. Nasir Jami was chief guest of the ceremony, which was attended by Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Executive Director HEC Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum, Vice Chancellors, IT experts, and a large number of students.
The Imagine Cup 2024 is an integral component of the agreement. The Cup provides a platform for student technologists, developers, and aspiring entrepreneurs from diverse academic backgrounds to collaborate, innovate, and bring their technological visions to life. The enticing rewards, including a USD 100,000 prize, global recognition, and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO & Chairman Satya Nadella, serve as powerful incentives for students to push their boundaries and contribute groundbreaking ideas.
The launch of Founders Hub brings exciting news for entrepreneurs. Microsoft will provide them with USD $2,500 in OpenAI credits and scale up with up to USD $150,000 in Azure credits for Azure AI services.
The AI focused skilling initiative under the HEC umbrella will offer training programmes on major technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Business Applications, Azure Cloud, and Cyber Security.
Addressing the ceremony, Mr. Nasir Jami appreciated the HEC-Microsoft partnership for diffusion of technologies and promotion of IT through higher education institutions across the country. He underlined that the Ministry of IT, jointly with partners like HEC, is working on creating employment opportunities for IT graduates. He maintained that Pakistan, according to an ILO study, is one of the leading freelancing markets of the world as 500,000 Pakistani youth are engaged in working and earning online.
Highlighting the challenge of unemployment of Pakistan's IT graduates, the Secretary urged the students to acquire quality education and skills to meet the national and international market demands. He noted that Pakistan has strong digital potential to develop a knowledge-based industry fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. He assured that the Government is committed to promoting efficient, sustainable, and effective ICT initiatives through synergic development of industrial and academic resources.
In his remarks, Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed advised the students to keep themselves updated and equipped with the skills required to cope with the future technological world's challenges. He said HEC started the journey of adorning the higher education sector with the technological resources through Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN) in 2004. “The journey is continuing with astounding progress, as now we have 100 smart and safe campuses," he underlined.
He maintained that the Government is committed to upscaling the capacity of youth in the technological sphere by enabling them to make their place in the job market. He noted that the Pakistani youth are second to none as they have a great potential, which needs to be tapped.
The Chairman acknowledged the support extended by HEC partners in creating an enabling environment of Pakistani youth. He said that HEC is working with the IT Ministry and different partners and stakeholders to address the gaps between the skillset of graduates and the market demands. He mentioned a few initiatives being executed in collaboration of partners, including Pakistan's own Chat GPT and “Smart Teachers".
Dr. Zia Ul Qayyum highlighted the importance of HEC-Microsoft partnership in terms of development and diffusion of technologies for the future IT experts of the country. He hoped that the partnership will continue to nurture a culture of innovation, enabling the Pakistani graduates to become good members of the IT community globally.
On this occasion, the Microsoft Country Lead shared a presentation on outcomes and prospects of HEC-Microsoft partnership. He said technology is the key to fuel economic development, increase work force competitiveness, transition to a knowledge-based economy and help drive job creation. He said HEC and Microsoft are jointly working to achieve the goal of digital transformation in education. Mentioning two Microsoft programmes, viz. “Learn" for students and educators separately, he said Microsoft is collaborating with HEC on a number of its key IT initiatives including Data Repository.
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