Lahore, 19th Dec, 2020: PSDF women graduates from across the province joined in person and online celebrating their achievements in taking the step towards self-employment in the digital age. At the ceremony 100 women graduated from PSDF’s online courses, designed to empower women for the digital economy. Present as chief guests at the ceremony was Andleeb Abbas, Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Member of National Assembly (MNA).

A study conducted by UNWomen highlights the strong adverse impact of the pandemic on the livelihoods of vulnerable groups like women and recommends financial empowerment and increased labour force participation for women in Pakistan to mitigate the crisis. In light of the multi-faceted challenges brought forward by the pandemic (including loss of jobs and income) PSDF launched specially designed online courses to increase income generation opportunities for women.

Jawad Khan, CEO PSDF spoke of women’s essential membership of the work force. “The enormous province-wide response that the pilots received combined with the sustained economic success as a result of the trainings are proof points that women can contribute massively to household incomes when given the right opportunities. In that endeavour, PSDF plays a front-line role, having graduated over 178,000+ women in the past 10 years”. He also reiterated PSDFs commitment to continually grow women trainings portfolio at PSDF in digital, brick and hybrid models across multiple sectors.

In July 2020, PSDF partnered with Extreme Commerce LLC to launch an online training program for women to acquire skills as Amazon Virtual Assistants. (The ‘Virtual Assistant’ is an independent contractor who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client’s office). The program will enable women to earn and be self-employed, while working remotely, during the current pandemic.

PSDF also launched a partnership with Foodpanda (largest online food delivery platform/service) to enable female home chefs to sell their products through the Foodpanda platform and envisages the training of women articulate in cooking to become empowered entrepreneurs.
These programs fall under PSDF’s URAAN brand, representing the moment of lift, of flight for women, unencumbered by burdens and roadblocks, empowering them with the skills training needed to sustain themselves, their families, and their dreams.

About PSDF – A Success Story of Public-Private Partnerships:

PSDF is the largest skills development fund in Pakistan for the youth. It plays a leadership role in skills training by collaborating with over 500+training partners, including 200+ businesses across 10 sectors. PSDF delivers training in 2,400+ locations and 40% of its beneficiaries are women. PSDF also leads the National Accelerator on Closing the Skills Gap in Pakistan in partnership with the World Economic Forum.

PSDF – Media Enquiries

Communications Team:
Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF),
Contact: +92-42-35752408-10
E-mail: communications@psdf.org.pk

Follow PSDF on Social Media

Website: www.psdf.org.pk
LinkedIn: Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF)
Facebook:/punjabskillsdevelopmentfund
Twitter: @PSDF_official
YouTube: /punjabskillsdevelopmentfund

LAHORE: 9 November, 2020 – PSDF, the largest skills development fund in Pakistan (funded by FCDO and the Government of Punjab), has partnered with Coursera, one of the world’s leading online learning platforms, to offer globally recognized courses, free of cost for our youth. The partnership was announced during Coursera CEO’s Global Keynote at the Coursera virtual conference.

While online learning is a relatively new phenomenon in Pakistan, amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic, interest and necessity have jointly dictated the shift to online learning particularly for school, colleges and universities. Internet penetration, growing cellular subscribers have facilitated the uptake of online learning, providing access to the world’s best education, and promoting inclusion in learning.

PSDF’s partnership with Coursera taps into this potential, offering a wide variety of courses in market relevant fields, and are particularly geared towards enhancing career advancement, increasing income avenues, and promoting self-employment.

The courses currently offered through PSDF, are 4-months long, and are in the fields of Digital Marketing (for learning SEO, Social Media Marketing and Marketing Analytics), IT (ranging from APP development to coding languages of JAVA & PYTHON), to Finance (Financial Accounting Fundamentals). Through PSDF, these courses will be offered free of cost to the youth that need them the most, with PSDF further incentivizing upskilling with a stipend of PKR 6,000 to be received upon completion of the course.

Every course on Coursera is taught by top instructors from 190 world-class universities and organizations (University of Virginia, UCDavis, Google, IBM etc.) with over 40+ Million learners till date. Learners can take advantage of learning at their own pace through on-demand video lectures, homework exercises, and community discussion forums. After completion of their respective courses, 85% Coursera learners reported gaining more confidence at work, and 87% reported improved team performance.

Speaking on occasion of the launch of the partnership, CEO PSDF, Mr. Jawad Khan expressed the importance of online learning for youth to gain marketable skills for the 21^st century: “As we navigate our way out of the global Coronavirus pandemic, digital preparedness and online learning have become the need of the hour. PSDF has once again been ahead of the curve, bringing Coursera to Pakistan, on such a large scale, bringing world class learning opportunities to the homes of millions of Pakistani students and workers. We’re looking forward to taking this partnership ahead, to create real and tangible impact for our youth”.

Encouraging youth to take full advantage of the opportunity, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO at Coursera said: “We’re really excited to be partnering with PSDF, the largest skills development fund in Pakistan, to empower the young men and women in Pakistan to develop their potential with online learning. The COVID-19 pandemic has harmed economies and livelihoods, but even as we work and learn from home, online learning has become more accessible and powerful than ever. Our partnership with PSDF provides the opportunity for everyone to access free training to upskill and give themselves an edge in the local and global labour markets.”

The PSDF and Coursera partnership has thus officially been launched and will be available for free for poor and vulnerable youth in the country. The courses are accessible through learn.psdf.org.pk. Seats are limited, so applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible to kickstart their career, upgrade their skills and discover new income avenues.

About PSDF – A Success Story of Public-Private Partnerships:
PSDF is the largest skills development fund in Pakistan set up by the Government of Punjab (GoPb) in collaboration with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

It plays a leadership role in skills training by collaborating with over 500+ training partners, including 200+ businesses across 10 sectors. PSDF delivers trainings in 2,400+ locations and 40% of its beneficiaries are women. PSDF also leads the National Accelerator on Closing the Skills Gap in Pakistan in partnership with the World Economic Forum.

PSDF – Media Enquiries

Communications Team:
Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF),
Contact: +92-42-35752408-10
E-mail: communications@psdf.org.pk

Follow PSDF on Social Media

Website: www.psdf.org.pk
LinkedIn: Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF)
Facebook:/punjabskillsdevelopmentfund
Twitter: @PSDF_official
YouTube: /punjabskillsdevelopmentfund