Minister of IT Teams Up with Meta to Launch AI Faculty Training Program

Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication, participated in a high-level panel discussion on the AI Faculty Training Program, that was established together with HEC, Meta, along with NCEAC.

Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman NCEAC, senior MoITT officials, the CEO of the Pakistan Software Export Board, and Atom Camp representatives were present at the meeting.

The delegation of Meta was led by Sarim Aziz, Director of South and Central Asia Public Policy. In an effort to better prepare higher education system of Pakistan for the digital future, the Minister talked about the project as a model of academic, private, as well as public collaboration.

Minister of IT said that the program offers a two-track approach: AI Hard Skills certifications, including LLaMA credentials of Meta via Coursera, for 250–500 technical faculty members throughout Pakistan, and AI Soft Skills training for more than 1,000 non-technical university faculty members.

Minister of IT, Khawaja underlined that AI is a transformative force that is not only a technical instrument but also a force that is changing fields like governance, agriculture, health, and education.

She stated that MoITT would completely endorse the national rollout of the program, policy alignment, and integration with other digital skills projects as well as the anticipated National AI Policy.

In the years to come, the Minister proposed improving partnership through the implementation of AI ethical and safety frameworks, translating the content in Urdu and other regional languages, along with implementing student-centric AI training phases.

In addition, she suggested the setting up of a long-term AI Faculty Development Fund and the implementation of collaborative dashboards to track advancement.

She expressed gratitude to the NCEAC team, Meta, and Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed for their leadership and underlined the need of educating faculty members about GenAI in order to create a workforce that is AI-literate and prepared for the global digital economy.