Essay on "Technical Education" | With Outline, Quotations and References

Essay on "Technical Education"

Outline of the Essay

1. Introduction

2. Difference Between General Education and Technical Education

3. Significance of Technical Education
   a. Increase in Literacy Rate
   b. Better Employment Opportunities
   c. Key to Economic Success in the 21st Century
   d. Drive Technological Revolution

4. Importance of Technical Education For Pakistan

5. Current Status of Technical Education in Pakistan

6. Conclusion

Complete Essay With References and Quotations

“Technical education is a type of education that focuses on the practical application of knowledge and skills in specific fields of study.”

Technical education can be found in colleges and universities, as well as non-traditional institutions such as technical colleges and vocational institutes. As the end goal of education is to prepare the students for their professional life, technical education also called vocational training is the best way to achieve this goal.

Education is not an end in itself, rather it is a means to an end. 

General education provides individuals with a broad-based education that includes subjects such as history, literature, and the arts. While technical education provides individuals with the skills and knowledge for a specific field of study. These fields include agriculture, engineering, medicine among others. For example, a technical diploma in surveying and architecture allows a student to get knowledge about using the complicated tools involved in the process of surveying and architecture. Learners who go through this education are referred to as Technicians or Diploma holders. 

“The goal of education is understanding, the goal of training is performance”

- Frank Bell 

Technical education has many advantages, one of them is improving the literacy rate. Literacy rate is the percentage of the population that can read or write. Developing countries often face the problem of low literacy rate. It primarily happens because of two reasons: either people are too poor to send their children to schools or the government does not have enough resources to provide education to every child. This problem of low literacy can be easily resolved through technical education. By providing convenient short courses, the government will be able to provide skills to  the students who are unable to pursue higher education. 

“Literacy is the bridge from misery to hope” 

- Kofi Annan 

Furthermore, technical education equips people with the required skills so that they can enter the job market ready to serve. It also develops a passion and capability for innovation in them so that they can start their own businesses and create jobs for others. 

“Through technical education we can prepare young people for the jobs of the future”. 

- Hillary Clinton

Technical education has proved to be a prerequisite for economic progress in the 21st century. For any country in the 21st century, a well-trained human resource is necessary for progress. Countries like Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia, all have a skilled workforce that helps the industrial sector. By training the human resource, these countries are earning billions of dollars by exporting their high-tech products. 

In order to drive technological revolution, technical education can provide the right capabilities to the human capital. In the modern world, only that country will be able to grow and invest in Information Technology (IT). Currently Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the world. With the introduction of ChatGPT, it is clear that AI is changing at a very fast pace. In order to keep up with this change, technical education will play a very important role. With the help of AI learning courses and programmes, students will be able to learn modern technology. As time changes, the learning patterns should also change. 

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” 

–John Dewey

Traditionally, the Pakistan government has always focused its attention on formal and general education, with little to no investment in technical and vocational training. As Pakistan is currently facing economic challenges, investment in technical education will be worth the price. It will reduce unemployment in the country and will train the unskilled youth. This will not only improve Pakistan’s economic situation but will also help in the digital transformation. Pakistan needs technical experts in the areas of IT, textile industry, leather industry, garments industry, manufacturing and healthcare.

There are multiple public and private institutes in Pakistan that provide technical education to the population. Recently the government is also focusing on the use of technology for such training programs. For example, the government launched Digiskills which is a free online platform for providing freelancing courses and skills. Also, the government started Pakistan’s first online university called Virtual University (VU) that helps in online learning. 

There is no doubt that technical education is crucial to the progress of a nation. It makes a country rich, prosperous and resourceful. However, the success and failure of technical training programs depends on the quality and type of courses. The programs should focus on modern skills that will be important in the future and their quality should be according to the demand of the global market. 

“Technology is changing everything at a fast pace. Only the country that adopts this change will succeed.” 

- Barack Obama