Engineering education must prepare students for life

The Necessity of Engineering

Muzamil opens by asking the central question: Is engineering degree worthless in Pakistan today. Ahsan counters immediately. “The need of engineering has never been before,” he says. From the Stone Age through the industrial revolution to artificial intelligence and machine learning, every era demanded engineering. The issue is not that engineering became useless. It is that universities stopped teaching relevance.

Ahsan points to Pakistan’s concrete needs. During COVID-19, the country faced a critical shortage of medical appliances and instruments. Who builds those. Engineers. Pakistan needs self-sufficiency in defense, textiles, agriculture, solar energy, and automation. Every sector requires skilled problem-solvers. The engineering crisis is not a crisis of necessity. It is a crisis of alignment.

The Relevance Problem

Here is where the conversation sharpens. A graduate from UET or EME studies embedded systems, machine learning, or autonomous vehicles. These are legitimate fields. But when they enter industry, they find themselves doing maintenance and operations on heavy machinery. They sit alongside consultants imported from Germany. Some never touch their domain. They drift into call centers or freelancing, teaching themselves Python to compete on platforms like Upwork.

This is not because the knowledge is useless. It is because the knowledge is disconnected from the market. Ahsan has seen this pattern for 15 years. “We are constantly job seekers. We are not job makers,” he says. Students graduate without understanding where real opportunities exist or how to create them.

Problem-Solving Over Innovation

Muzamil shares a story. An engineer friend wanted to build smart homes in Pakistan. Nobody bought them. That same engineer then looked at textile mills running 24 hours with massive electricity bills. He found a 12-watt bulb that could be replaced with a 6-watt alternative and still provide the same light. The mill owner was not interested in innovation. But when pitched with hard math, the owner listened. “You will save $6 million a year. I keep $3 million. You save $6 million in year two.” Instantly bankable.

This is the lesson Ahsan emphasizes: Ego says “I will invent something groundbreaking.” Reality says “I will solve a specific problem my customer pays me to fix.” Engineers who understand this win. The ones chasing pure innovation without a customer often die broke.

Beyond Technical Skills

Universities teach circuit design. Industry hires for communication. A US study Ahsan cites found that only 8 to 10 percent of technical resources working in industry actually use the technical skills they studied. The real value comes from verbal and written communication, leadership, teamwork, creativity, and the ability to work independently and take calculated risks.

This is not a nice-to-have. This is survival. A graduate with strong grades but no soft skills hits a wall the moment they meet a customer or a team. Conversely, a student who learned to pitch ideas, listen, and adapt often outpaces the top grades.

The Ego Problem

Ahsan invokes Farsi wisdom. The trees with the most fruit bow to the ground. Trees that stand tall and rigid bear no fruit. This is the ego trap that blinds engineers from learning. “Do not condition yourself because of your circumstances,” he tells Muzamil. Proactive people see problems and solve them. Reactive people wait for perfect conditions that never arrive.

Interdisciplinary Teams

No single engineer builds a car alone. An engine requires mechanical parts, electrical systems, metallurgy, control systems, automation, and fuel flow management. Each requires a specialist. A product needs engineering, design, chemistry, marketing, and business sense. When one person tries to master all of it, the product suffers.

This is why startups work when assembled right. A chemical engineer with an idea cannot fund it alone. But bring in an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a designer, and a business person into one room, and suddenly each sees their piece of the solution. “You take your share, I take my share,” Malik says. “But you cannot say I will be architect and sales and marketing and designer all at once.”

Agriculture and Modern Innovation

Ahsan pulls a powerful example. The Netherlands, half the size of Punjab, produces 3 to 4 times the agricultural output of all Pakistan. Why. Technology. Vertical farming, hydroponics, drip irrigation, soil moisture sensors, automated lighting, and even pest-control drones.

Pakistan has fertile land and water scarcity. Engineer irrigation systems that measure soil moisture in real time and deliver water on demand. Engineer drones to spray pesticide efficiently. The market does not need revolutionary innovation. It needs smart application of existing tools to local problems.

Life, Not Grades

Near the end, Ahsan shifts the frame entirely. Universities measure students by GPA. But Malik has seen brilliant failures and scrappy successes. The high-ranking medalists often end up stalled. The explorers with mid-range grades often build businesses. Why. The explorers had guts, risk-taking ability, and the skill to adapt. They treated the degree as a starting point, not a finish line.

“We should think that we have to prepare our students for life,” Ahsan says. Not for a job. Not for a four-year course. For a 40 to 50-year career in a world that shifts faster than any curriculum can keep up.

He ends with an invitation. “The world is very big and there are many opportunities. If you only have your eyes open, it’s a land of opportunities.”