Are Pakistani Business Schools Fulfilling the Requirements of Pakistan’s Growing IT Industry?

Abstract

Even with its expanding nature, IT industry in Pakistan has been neglected by the researchers and no research has been conducted to understand the needs of this industry with regards to the required employability skills in business school graduates. This is research conducted to understand the extent to which business schools are satisfying the needs of the IT industry for which 15 IT firm HR managers were interviewed. It can be concluded that the most important and sought after employability skills by IT firm HR managers are interpersonal communication skills and lifelong learning skills. It was surprising to note that even though IT firms realized the high standard of foreign universities they felt that graduates from high ranking Pakistani universities were a better option for them as they understood the dynamics of Pakistani market. Even though all firms were dissatisfied by low ranking business schools, there were still those that gave equal opportunity to all business school graduates and gauged them in isolation regardless of their business school. The paper at the end provides recommendations for Pakistani business schools that would help them to place themselves among world’s top ranking business schools.