The Punjab Government has, through its organisations TEVTA and the Vocational Training Council, signed MOUs with the City and Guilds International UK, availing its services. One MOU was signed on Monday between TEVTA Chairman Saeed Alvi and a City and Guilds International representative, and the other between Council Chairman Faisal Ijaz and British Council Lahore Director Darren Warden, for teacher training, establishment of centres of excellence, preparation of syllabi and of more teachers. The introduction of the City and Guilds qualifications into Pakistan will represent an advance for vocational training. So far, there has been a continued emphasis on academics. Though that too is desirable, it should not be forgotten that the work-world into which todays child will enter tomorrow will demand vocational skills, and education should encompass that too. One result of our emphasis on academic qualifications has been that the syllabi of vocational training have included too high a purely academic component. The needs of vocational training are actually more demanding than mere academics, for it is no easy task to predict the needs of the marketplace of the future. This has not been thought of as a suitable avenue for training, and foreign qualifications, while brought in at all levels up to graduation, have not yet been spread into the field of vocational training. Also, though, there has been some tokenism towards vocational training, governments have not given the subject sufficient attention, with the Shahbaz government proving an exception by virtue of the concerted efforts it has been making in this direction. The marketplace of the future demands a workforce that is skilled beyond the present. It is the governments duty to provide an education suitable for the future, in the sense that the recipient of that education is fitted for the marketplace of the future. For too long has it been assumed that there is only the academic type of education that is worth being delivered, and thus it has been the focus of previous governments.