Washington —
South Asia's youth boom is a ticking time bomb: a looming demographic dividend but millions of young people lack the job skills to capitalize on it, stifling the region's economic potential.
Nearly half of South Asia's 1.9 billion people are under the age of 24, the highest number of any region in the world. With nearly 100,000 young people entering the labour market every day, the region boasts the world's largest youth workforce.
Experts have been sounding the alarm for years: Many young people in South Asia lack the education and skills needed to enter the modern workforce, and a 2019 UNICEF study warned that if nothing changes, more than half could be left without a decent job by 2030.
Now, International Youth Day shines a spotlight on the skills gap crisis in the region. While some South Asian countries have made progress in recent years, latest UNICEF figures paint a grim reality: 93 million children and adolescents in South Asia are out of school, nearly six in 10 are illiterate by age 10, and about a third are out of education, employment or training – NEETs.
“We know that this region has the largest population of children and young people, but sadly, we also know that despite the opportunities that this brings, learning and skills acquisition is not enough for many young people,” Mads Sorensen, UNICEF's lead youth adviser for South Asia, said in an interview with VOA. “This clearly holds young people back from reaching their full potential.”
Sorensen said the problem comes down to the quality of education: Many teachers are stuck in old teaching methods, schools in many areas lack basic tools like computers and students aren't taught the digital skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace.
“So young people are not really acquiring skills that are highly sought after in the labor market, particularly in the private sector,” Sorensen said.
Skills shortages are not limited to K-12 education: Enrollment in higher education in South Asia has tripled over the past two decades, reaching an average of 27% by 2022, according to the World Bank. But the quality of university education remains uneven, and many graduates find their hard-earned degrees ill-equipped for today's job market.
Big investment with little return
Take Ariful Islam, a recent graduate of a business degree who now helps his father run a sweet shop in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. After graduating last year, he went through several job interviews, but none of them led to any success, forcing him to settle for a job that barely covered his living expenses.
His father, Akram Khan, who invested nearly $13,000 in his son's Islamic education, said he had to quit his job to start a modest business.
“I spent a lot of money on my son's education and now he doesn't have a job that matches his qualifications,” Khan told VOA in an interview. “As a father, I feel bad.”
Others, like Zahirul Haq, a 2022 public administration major, have been shut out of coveted government jobs.
At the heart of Bangladesh's recent turmoil is a controversial quota system favouring independence war veterans and their descendants, which is thwarting his dreams of a civil service career.
FILE – Students and job seekers shout slogans calling for a ban on quotas for government jobs, at Shahbagh Square in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 3, 2024.
After two years of passing government-administered exams with no success, he reluctantly took up a low-paid job with a local non-governmental organisation.
“I was a little disappointed,” he told VOA.
Bangladesh's tough job market offers few prospects for young university graduates like Haq, but he says he remains hopeful of a better job.
Good news, sobering news
Once one of Asia's poorest countries, Bangladesh has experienced rapid economic growth in recent decades and is on track to become a middle-income country by 2026.
South Asia as a whole is expected to be the fastest-growing emerging market this year, according to the World Bank. Youth unemployment in South Asia fell to a 15-year low of 15.1 percent last year, the International Labor Organization said in a new report released Monday.
The ILO said that while there were signs that the youth job market was easing, unemployment was the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. Moreover, South Asia had “too many” young women excluded from the labour market, with the number of women not working or studying exceeding 42 percent, the highest in the region, it said.
Sorensen said that while countries such as Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka have narrowed their skills gaps in recent years, the region's most populous countries – India, Bangladesh and Pakistan – are lagging behind.
The plight of young women is even worse: one in four girls in South Asia is married before the age of 18, wasting their education and careers. Bangladesh's underage marriage numbers have worsened in recent years, while Pakistan remains “dire,” Sorensen said.
Pakistan lags behind most countries in the region in higher education, with enrolment at 13% as of 2022. The country boasts high-quality universities, but many students complain about outdated curricula.
Noor-ul-Huda, an English major at a public university in Islamabad, said the curriculum “does not incorporate new trends of the 21st century.”
Hooda said her major is considered “less practical” than academic fields such as engineering or business, and her job prospects are bleak.
“The job market is competitive and I think it's very hard to find work,” she said.
Not ready for work
Many parents who have poured large amounts of money into their children's education are facing the same reality: schools are not preparing students for the job market.
Humna Saleem, a kindergarten teacher in Rawalpindi, worries about her son, who is soon to graduate from a private university with a degree in computer science, but who she says has had to teach himself to code despite the expensive tuition fees.
“What I have observed since I grew up is that he is taught a lot of theoretical knowledge, but practical skills are not taught to students,” she told VOA.
The world is changing, but Pakistan's classrooms remain stuck in the past, she said, and students need more than just degrees: they need digital and “soft skills” like critical thinking and interpersonal communication.
“It doesn't matter if you're a doctor, accountant or engineer, you need those skills no matter what profession you choose,” Saleem said.
In recent years, governments in the region have stepped up efforts to close the skills gap.
In India, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has partnered with UNICEF to provide 21st century skills, apprenticeships and entrepreneurship opportunities to young people.
In Pakistan, the Prime Minister's Youth Skill Development Programme, launched in 2013, aims to equip youth with market-driven skills in IT, entrepreneurship, agriculture, tourism and vocational sectors.
“We need to equip young people with skills to meet modern demands and enable them to contribute to the country's development,” Pakistan's Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told the Pakistan Associated Press in July.
In Bangladesh, the National Skills Development Council, led by the Prime Minister, has introduced new policies to upskill the workforce for a modern economy.
Universities in South Asia have tackled the skills gap crisis by emphasizing critical thinking, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, and some are strengthening digital skills and vocational training to better prepare graduates for the job market.
Sorensen praised the region's efforts but said more needs to be done to build a vibrant, modern workforce in South Asia.
“We keep saying that young people are the leaders of today, and that's true, but they're also the leaders of tomorrow,” Sorensen said.
VOA's Afghan, Bengali and Urdu Services contributed to this report.
