Ever-increasing broadband access accelerates growth of freelancing in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Oct 24 (APP): Freelancing-progressing well in conventional job markets – is expanding at an exponential rate in Pakistan as the country is ranked among the top countries earning through freelancing.
It is estimated that by 2020, one in three workers worldwide
will be freelancing online.
The ever-increasing broadband access in Pakistan has accelerated the growth of freelance market places, says a survey report.
Due to internet proliferation, freelance jobs are growing as
more than 10,000 IT graduates enter Pakistan’s market annually.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in its latest report on Monday said Pakistan has also seen a tremendous rise in freelance writing by graduates, especially females, who work from home and earn through online writing and research.
It mentioned Elance-Desk Annual Impact Report 2014, as per which Pakistan achieved 5th position in terms of freelancers with highest earnings index but now it is expanding at an exponential rate and Pakistan is ranked among the top countries.
The human capital in Pakistan has grown significantly over the
last decade with almost 16 % of younger age group having a college degree.
Pakistan is considered as one of the top two outsourcing destinations in terms of growth, value for money and customer feedback.
The reason behind freelancing is to get cheap yet competitive
labour and Pakistan’s IT sector is carving a niche for itself as an
ideal place to go for low-cost but equally competent freelance IT
programmers and Mobile app designers/developers.
The MIT Technology Review Pakistan has reported there are an
estimated 1,500 registered IT companies in Pakistan.
Another survey revealed that freelancers in Pakistan work 34 hours per week.
Moreover, the qualities of projects provided by the Pakistani freelancers are in line with top freelancer countries around the
world.
Highlighting the benefits of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) in education domain, PTA’s report said it can an
efficient tool to disseminate education and improve learning and
literacy rate in a country.
ICTs can be helpful in delivering course material to the
students via video lectures, digital notes, online exams etc as well
as help a formal classroom by using interactive audio-video
equipment, course management systems and class information portals
etc.
The concept of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is also
gaining momentum where learning content is delivered online to any
person who wants to take a course, with no limit on attendance.
Pakistan also established Virtual University (VU) in year 2002, a
distant and online learning institute offering degree courses
in information technology and management sciences that enables
the students in far flung areas to get formal education and
graduate degrees.
For students with limited financial resources, the Prime
Minister’s and Chief Minister’s Laptop Scheme is a wonderful step to
provide ICT opportunities to young students in Pakistan.
Moreover, the schools in Punjab are being smartly monitored by
on-field 950 monitoring officers who are responsible to visit schools in their respective areas and provide digital feedback to the government on the facilities, education standards and staff through a customized Tablet.
The monitoring reports are also available online for general
public.
Similarly, Pakistan Education & Research Network (PERN) provides communication infrastructure to universities, institutions of higher learning and research organizations to meet their networking and internet requirements.
Moreover, HEC National Digital Library (DL) is a programme to
provide researchers within public and private universities in
Pakistan and non-profit research and development organizations with
access to international scholarly literature based on online
delivery, providing access to high quality, peer-reviewed journals,
databases, articles and e-Books across a wide range of disciplines.