The Center for Advanced Research in Engineering, operating under the CARE and CASE banner, has formally joined a consortium led by the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology as part of Pakistan’s National Semiconductor Human Resource Development Program, known as NSHRDP INSPIRE. The initiative, backed by the Pakistan Software Export Board and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, brings together some of the country’s leading engineering and technology institutions with the shared objective of building a credible domestic talent pipeline for the global semiconductor industry.
The consortium assembled for the programme includes, alongside CARE and GIKI, the NED University of Engineering and Technology, COMSATS University Islamabad’s Abbottabad Campus, the National Electronics Complex of Pakistan, and the National Institute of Electronics. Together, these institutions will deliver the Upskilling Training Program in Digital Design and Verification, which is scheduled to launch in May 2026. The programme represents a coordinated national effort to equip engineers and technical professionals with the specialised skills that underpin modern semiconductor design workflows, an area where Pakistan has historically had limited formal training infrastructure despite possessing significant underlying engineering talent.
Announcing the development on social media, Chancellor of Sir Syed CASE Institute of Technology and Chief Executive Officer of CARE, Shoab Khan, noted that his organisation’s Enabling Technologies team had pioneered digital design in Pakistan as far back as the year 2000, making the consortium’s formation a return to a mission that CARE helped define over two decades ago. Khan described the initiative not merely as an opportunity but as a responsibility, framing CARE’s participation as a renewed commitment to a cause that is now being pursued with greater institutional support and national urgency than at any previous point. The programme is intended to serve as a foundational step toward Pakistan’s broader ambition of positioning itself as a globally recognised semiconductor hub, a goal that requires sustained investment in human capital, academia and industry collaboration, and structured alignment between technical education and the demands of an industry that is central to the future of computing, communications, and defence technology worldwide.
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