Ignite (National Technology Fund) has set a new vision of transforming Pakistan’s economy into knowledge based economy by promoting sustainable and effective ICT initiatives through the development of industrial and academic resources. Recently Ignite hosted Digiskills Consultative Conclave on 27th July, 2017 in Islamabad.

The main agenda of the event was to produce 1 million freelancers through training and injecting digital skills in them. The world we live in is becoming more digitalized and automated with the upcoming 4th Industrial revolution which will predictably cause disruption and massive unemployment. So, it is important to embed courses with Digital Skills in the curriculum in order to maintain competitiveness of our youth in the job market and freelance landscape.

This event was divided into four brain storming sessions, in which people from different stakeholder organizations (i.e. Academia, Industry, Freelancers, NGO’s) participated and gave valuable suggestions for launching Digital Skills Training Program. Mrs. Anusha Rehman (Honorable Minister of State for IT and Telecom) was the Chief Guest of the event. She highlighted the importance of streamlining career choices for young Pakistanis who have the potential to be the best in the world.

Another interesting highlight of this event was that, National ICT R&D Fund formally highlighted itself as IGNITE for the first time. This change in the name represents the fund’s new direction of funding tech startups in the fields of 4th Industrial Wave i.e. AI, Robotics etc.