CodeGirls recently hosted a series of workshops with EQUALS and Tech4Girls to raise awareness and educate women and young girls about digital skills, E-commerce, and Mobile Application Development. The second edition of this series was hosted online on October 22nd and 23rd, Friday and Saturday. The host, CodeGirls Pakistan, is an exclusive women-only initiative that aims to empower women in Pakistan’s tech industry.
Similar to the first edition, this workshop program was partnered with and supported by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication of Pakistan, GSMA, W4, ITU, and EQUALS Global Partnership.
On Friday October 22nd, 2021, the event started at 9:00 am with an orientation session, code of conduct, rules, and plan shared by Faiza Yousuf, co-founder CodeGirls. After the opening, video statements were shared by representatives of the partner organizations, including Ajmal Anwar Awan, Member of Internal Coordination for the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication Pakistan, Julian Gorman, Head of Asia Pacific for GSMA, Atsuko Okuda, Regional Director of ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and Lindsey Nefesh Clarke, Founder and President of W4.org. The event also featured a short video presentation about EQUALS Her Digital Skills initiative.
The workshops focused on intensive learning for the participants on Introduction to Tech through ecommerce. These carefully curated eight hours were centered around the specific topic of setting up small businesses on Shopify.
Shopify is a top-rated and recommended E-commerce platform. It specializes in starting, growing, and managing small businesses. The idea of this workshop was to impart the skill of E-commerce entrepreneurship to the participants.
One hundred participants attended the sessions on both the days and were exclusively women aged between 18-30 from all over Pakistan. The women-only event offered capacity building workshops to participants aspiring to become skilled technologists and entrepreneurs in the growing IT industry of Pakistan.
CodeGirls conducted surveys before and after the workshop to maintain workshop standards and assess participants’ expectations, requirements, and experiences. Prior to the workshop, all the participants displayed an eagerness to explore opportunities for women in tech ecosystems across the world.
CodeGirls and Tech4Girls believe it is essential to provide workshop participants with holistic knowledge of the online world. A short session on online safety was also conducted during the workshop to assist participants in their experiences online.
Besides online safety, the main workshop sessions included interactive participation and active involvement of the students. The goal was to appreciate communication skills and promote inclusivity in the future tech sphere of Pakistan and the world.
Julian Gorman addressing the participants
On the subject of inclusivity in the future tech sphere of Pakistan, Julian Gorman, Head of Asia Pacific for GSMA, said that: “The value and the contribution to society is to allow users to easily set up and participate in generating content and give them the tools to easily participate in the digital society and the digital economy. That is what this workshop today is about. It is about how to invite you to become part of Pakistan’s fast-growing digital economy … Our Tech4Girls program is part of a community-wide program to increase the participation of women in our technology future. I hope your participation today may inspire you or grab your attention and interest in being part of Pakistan’s digital future.”
The third and final edition for this year will be help on November 19th and 20th, 2021, with a focus on Mobile Application Development. The registration is open for girls and women from all over the country. To register, click on this: https://forms.gle/XFFu5b6f2ffeRYgE6
