Equipping youth with digital skills need of hour, says Amin

By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Syed Amin-ul-Haque has said that equipping the youth with digital skills is the need of the hour.
He expressed these views while addressing the Agreement Signing Ceremony between Ignite and the Virtual University of Pakistan for the launch of DigiSkills Program. The agreement was signed by CEO Ignite Asim Shahryar Husain and Rector Virtual University of Pakistan Arshad Saleem Bhatti.
The minister said Pakistan is the 4th fastest growing country in terms of freelancers and their earnings in the world. He said youths are assets and the Ministry of IT & Telecom is taking steps for the development of youth.
The minister appreciated the DigiSkills results, saying that DigiSkills has played a commendable role in equipping emerging and existing freelancers with knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques necessary to seize the opportunities available internationally in online freelancing marketplaces. About IT exports, he said that strong measures are being taken to increase IT exports.
He said that the empowerment of women is an important motto of the Ministry of IT. IT Minister also gave directions for the completion of all projects in a transparent manner and on time. Speaking on the occasion, Secretary IT Dr Sohail Rajput said that after the success of the first phase of DigiSkills, the second phase will prove an important milestone.
Earlier, Rector Virtual University Dr Arshad Saleem Bhatti said that in the second phase, DigiSkills is targeting to impart 1,500,000 pieces of training over the period of two years.
Speaking on the occasion, CEO Ignite stated that the inclusion of 5 new courses and up-gradation/renewal of the existing 10 courses will equip the freelancers with the knowledge necessary to seize the opportunities available on global freelancing marketplaces and with the direct clients as well.
It is worth mentioning here that, Digiskills is Pakistan’s premier online training program that has already imparted 2.2 million free-of-cost training in freelancing skills.