Daily Times

The National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) has trained 200 students, including many girls, through an online digital skills program, which has not only empowered them but also provided sources of earning and livelihood.

The training program Revitalizing Youth Enterprise (RYE) was recently conducted in collaboration with the Citi Foundation and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund and primarily focused on the students of less developed regions of the country so that they could find a means of livelihood. These students were selected from Sukkar, Karachi, Multan and Bahawalpur and trained in E-commerce, graphic designing, social media management and other digital courses. The NRSP offered six-month and three-month courses to the students.

Zoofa Sajid from Chak 143 Murad of Hasilpur, Bahawalpur, who attended this course between October and January told DT that she got three-month training in digital marketing. “I was taught to make, design, and edit social media posts and videos on Canva, and how to get online work, especially on Fiverr.” I got an order from a client in the US and worked on his project, she added. “I cannot explain in words the excitement that I felt when I received my first earning of $75.”

Farah Khalid of Multan, who is a graduate of English Literature, had been jobless before doing this course. I happened to see the advertisement of this course on Facebook, she told DT, adding that she immediately applied for it. “I found many training opportunities before this course as well but the fees were very high and I could not afford these courses.”

Farah said that she learned about e-commerce, eBay, ETC, Fiverr, and Daraz. I also learnt how to sell our services and products on such platforms, she added. “I searched 20 products on eBay for a client and worked on a 20 percent partnership with another client. I am currently negotiating with two clients on Fiverr.”