Good practice

DigiSkills – National Free Online Digital Skills Training Programme

Pakistan · Islamabad · See the Pakistan profile

Pakistan's government programme delivering 15 free online digital skills courses; 5.14 million trainings completed by March 2026, 800,000+ women trained, with graduates generating $1.65 billion in freelancing export revenues.

5.14 million

Trainings completed (by Mar 2026)

800,000+

Women trained

$1.65 billion

Freelancing export revenues by graduates

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Ignite – National Technology Fund / Virtual University of Pakistan
Period: 2018-present
Keywords: Low-income households, youth, women, digital skills, freelancing, economic inclusion

Context

Pakistan's DigiSkills is a government programme delivering free online digital-skills courses to build freelancing and export capacity.

Results

By March 2026, 5.14 million trainings had been completed across 15 free courses, 800,000+ women trained, with graduates generating $1.65 billion in freelancing export revenues.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-21
Ignite – National Technology Fund / Virtual University of Pakistan — accessed 2026-06-21
DigiSkills.pk – Official Programme Website — accessed 2026-06-21
Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25, Chapter 15 – Information Technology — accessed 2026-06-21
Profit Pakistan Today – Freelance training generates $1.65 billion (May 2025) — accessed 2026-06-21

Quality score: 88/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported

Top 18% in this catalogue (573 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Innovation level2/5

Adapts standard MOOC delivery to a freelancing-economy model in Pakistan, with government-backed free access in Urdu across 15 vocational-digital tracks; moderately innovative in national context but not unprecedented globally.

Sustainability (ongoing)1/1

Running continuously since February 2018 with eight or more annual batches and an ongoing mandate from Ignite – National Technology Fund.

Evaluation evidence1/1

Enrollment (5.14M) and freelancing revenue ($1.65B) figures are corroborated by the Pakistan Economic Survey (Ministry of Finance) and independent tech press (ProPakistani, Profit Pakistan Today).

Demonstrated reach1/1

Over 5.14 million trainings delivered by March 2026, reaching 800,000+ women across all provinces; 300,000 seats per batch.

Documented learning1/1

Batching and course-evolution model documented; independent third-party evaluation commissioned January 2026 to generate transferable lessons on skills-to-income pathways.

Cite this

Evidoria. DigiSkills – National Free Online Digital Skills Training Programme. Persistent ID: cf490f8c-75af-45d3-884a-c3938709804a.

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