Revitalizing Youth Empowerment through Digital Skills in Pakistan.

Pakistan is currently experiencing two trends; a youth bulge without productivity, and increasing digitization of the economy and society. The trends are anticipated to continue and accelerate in the years to come.

The digitization of the economy has extensive potential to promote youth employment in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic shock reinforced the importance of digital skills for youth to have decent work opportunities.

As Pakistan currently has the youngest population in its history (65 percent of the total population is below the age of 30 while 29 percent is between the ages of 15 and 29 years) but a majority of them lack relevant and advanced skills to fulfill the demands of global markets.

At the same time, the country has the largest number of freelancers, making it the top five countries in the world for providing freelancing services using digital mediums.

It is obvious that digital skills can generate job opportunities for youth. In fact, the provision of digital skills to youth is more than a necessity than a choice.

National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) in collaboration with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) is playing its role and commitment to supporting digital skills for youth from underprivileged backgrounds in Pakistan.

It is implementing the project 'Revitalizing Youth Enterprise (RYE) through digital and life skills training' funded by and part of the Citi Foundation flagship program 'Pathways to Progress' a job skills-building initiative that addresses the persistent, global issue of youth unemployment.

The project has supported 200 poor young boys and girls from underdeveloped areas of four cities districts including Karachi, Sukkur, Bahawalpur, and Multan, in developing relevant digital skills through a 3-month training in e-commerce, digital marketing, social media management, graphic designing, and life skills.

Here I present the success stories of two beneficiaries;

Mr. Muhammad Sheeraz Saeed is from Hasilpur, Punjab. After graduating from the Government College of Technology in Hasilpur, with a degree in civil engineering in 2019, he could not find a job. But an online learning training program has given him two "gifts": digital and life skills.

Sheeraz was one of two hundred young boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds who took part in three months long 'Revitalizing Youth Enterprise (RYE) through digital and life skills training'.

He was trained in digital marketing because he sees the...