Telenor Pakistan celebrates ‘Girls in ICT Day’, stresses increased role of young women in the ICT sector
KARACHI – April 27, 2017: To encourage Pakistani girls to prepare themselves for opportunities offered by the booming ICT sector, Telenor Pakistan celebrated the ‘International Girls in ICT Day’ where it held an awareness session for female students of class 8 to 10 at GSIS School and College, Islamabad, followed by setting-up of an ICT lab at Hamara School, a private school cum orphanage in the outskirts of Islamabad.
Telenor Pakistan celebrates ‘Girls In ICT Day’. The picture shows: Christopher Laska – Chairman Telenor Pakistan Board, Tahir Mushtaq – Member (HRD) MoIT, Haaris Chaudhary – Company Secretary USF, and Quratulainali Rizvi – Principal GSIS School and College, along with the students.
The purpose of the awareness session was to educate young girls on the importance of pursuing higher education in math, engineering, computing, and sciences so they are prepared to land bright career opportunities that the ICT sector has to offer. The young students were informed that ICT companies across the world are looking to attract and promote women, not only because achieving greater workforce diversity is good for business, but also because increasing women at all levels has shown positive impacts on the companies’ financial performance. Two Telenor Pakistan female employees also trained schoolgirls on using the internet safely for fun and learning.
“We at Telenor Pakistan believe in an inclusive working environment and encourage women to prepare themselves to benefit from the opportunities ICT sector holds for them,” said Irfan Wahab Khan, CEO, Telenor Pakistan. “The representation of women in all of our initiatives from employment opportunities to mentoring entrepreneurs and youth empowerment measures is something we never compromise on.”
Telenor Pakistan, being the country’s leading ICT player and a catalyst of ICT-powered digital revolution, has a clear view of where the sector is headed and what it lacks most – the unequivocal answers being ‘immense growth’ and ‘women’ respectively. The company believes that a more gender-balanced ICT sector will offer fulfilling mid- and high-level careers, and enable highly talented women to springboard to the top of the career ladder.
Telenor supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular the SDG 5 that is aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls through, Information and Communication Technologies. The observance of ITU’s ‘Girls in ICT Day’ was an extension of the organization’s efforts to support that very SDG and promote women’s inclusion in the mainstream employment scene.
