The World Economic Forum in its recent publication “The Future of Jobs” has identified digital skills as one of the key areas of growth in the coming years. The digital skills have also been termed as the essential key to the “jobs of tomorrow”.

E-commerce and digital trade emerged as the top priority for technology adoption among companies in Pakistan. 91% of the companies have identified it as the most essential skillset required in the next five years. Big data analytics and cloud computing emerged as the second and third most desired digital skills.

Online learning and training is on the rise but looks different for those in employment and those who are unemployed. The Report highlights that, there has been a four-fold increase in the numbers of individuals seeking out opportunities for learning online through their own initiative, a five-fold increase in employer provision of online learning opportunities to their workers and a nine-fold enrolment increase for learners accessing online learning through government programmes. Those in employment are placing larger emphasis on personal development courses, which have seen 88% growth among that population. Those who are unemployed have placed greater emphasis on learning digital skills such as e-commerce, digital trade, data analysis, computer science and information technology.

As per the understanding signed between Mishal Pakistan, the country partner institute of the World Economic Forum and Extreme Commerce, the quality of trainings will be benchmarked, and new opportunities will be created for e-commerce and digital trade in Pakistan. Extreme Commerce is offering more than 50 ecommerce and  digital skills courses in Pakistan, with emphasis on specialized trainings on digital trade through international platforms like Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba etc.

Extreme Commerce, the leading digital and ecommerce skills organization in Pakistan, has played a vital role in training professionals to create entrepreneurial skillsets and generate additional jobs helping them earn sustainable income through freelancing. In the last three (03) years they have introduced more than 500,000 individuals to the global ecommerce opportunity through their platforms. On the signing of this partnership the Founder of Extreme Commerce, Sunny Ali said, “we have a commitment to empower our youth with the tools and knowledge, so they can champion and to create the businesses of tomorrow. This will not only generate livelihood for our youth about also develop an ecosystem for e-commerce and digital trade to thrive in the country.  He further said, “we have set a benchmark for Pakistan to train one million people in more than 50 digital-skills, with a special focus on e-commerce and digital trade related trainings.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, the Country Partner Institute of the World Economic Forum said, “the future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online white-collar workforce”. He further said, “Eighty-four percent of employers globally, are set to rapidly digitalize working processes, including a significant expansion of remote work—with the potential to move 44% of their workforce to operate remotely”. Jahangir said, “To address concerns about productivity and well-being, about one-third of all employers expect to also take steps to create a sense of community, connection and belonging among employees through digital tools, skills, and to tackle the well-being challenges posed by the shift to remote work”.