LAHORE: Laiba Ayub from Rawalpindi has been trained as an Amazon Virtual Assistant through an online course held by the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF).

“They have provided us with quality training and numerous opportunities,” says Laiba who is now working with a UK-based client.

“I will like to encourage other girls to also enrol in the upcoming batches of the programme,” she says.

Sharing her experience, Habiba from Wazirabad says her training as Amazon Virtual Assistant has helped her learn about product hunting, product sourcing and launching etc.

“Being a woman, while sitting at home, you are still earning and becoming a part of the country’s economy. You get the confidence (through the PSDF programme) that you can do something,” she says.

Laiba and Habiba are among the 100 women who graduated on Saturday from an online course held by the PSDF where they were trained in different skills.

The women, belonging to the districts across Punjab, joined the graduation ceremony both online and in person and spoke of their experiences, celebrating their achievements. They hoped that the new skills would help them become more empowered, especially regarding self-employment in the digital age.

In July 2020, the PSDF partnered with online shopping site to launch an online training programme for women to acquire skills as Amazon Virtual Assistants. (A ‘virtual assistant’ is an independent contractor who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client’s office). The programme was meant to enable women to earn and be self-employed while working remotely during the pandemic.

The PSDF had launched the online courses to increase income generation opportunities for women.

It also launched a partnership with an online food delivery service to enable female home chefs to sell their products through the platform.

The training programme was held under PSDF’s URAAN brand.

Congratulating the graduates, MNA Andleeb Abbas, the federal parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, praised the programme, saying it would give women economic empowerment.

Ms Abbas, the chief guest in the ceremony, appreciated the PSDF for empowering women.

“Women are now more enabled than ever before and have more opportunities. It makes a huge difference that they can learn skills online today,” she added.

Jawad Khan, the CEO of the PSDF, spoke of the importance of women joining the economic sphere and contributing to the country’s economy.

“The PDSF has helped 178,000 women graduate during the past 10 years,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2020