Pakistan currently has the largest percentage of young people ever recorded in its history, according to the new National Human Development Report launched on by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan, Titled Unleashing the Potential of a Young Pakistan, the report says 64pc of the total population is below the age of 30 while 29pc is between the ages of 15 and 29 years. It is one of the youngest countries in the world and the second youngest in the South Asian region after Afghanistan.

This youth bulge will critically impact Pakistan as a country if not dealt with appropriately, depending on how the country invests in the youth by providing them with quality education, employment and meaningful engagement opportunities.

Jazz unlike other corporate companies has been on the forefronts to support the youth shape their future by providing them the right skills and expertise that can help Pakistan overcome its economic challenges. Jazz decided to utilise its internal resources and expertise and pass it on free of cost through a volunteer programme called Jazz Guru’s. The aim of this program was to create linkages between Jazz and start-ups through the National Incubation Centre and Jaz Xlr8 Programmes.

Each Jazz Guru/mentor was assigned one start-up for the duration of 3-6 months and Gurus were mandated to give 02 hours per month to the start-up at NIC. Total of 40 Guru’s/Mentors were engaged voluntarily in this programme which provided expertise in the area of analytics and reporting, UI/UX, Marketing & Growth, Finance, Payments Platform and sales and business development.

Having seen the success of Jazz Guru’s program at NIC, the sustainability team initiated an employee’s engagement activity specially designed for the female students of grade 9th & 10th in its flagship programme Jazz Smart School.

More than 50 female employees from different departments ranging from middle management to top management volunteered to visit schools and interact with students. In order to make this initiative more meaningful, discussions were initiated with school management to identify the most suitable topics for mentorship. Among many topics, career counselling and digital innovations were the top picks by students. So far, 150 volunteer hours have been spent in schools by Jazz employees from which more than 600+ female students have benefited.

Jazz will continue to support this initiative in the coming years as the response has been overwhelming from students and even parents. Aamir Ibrahim, CEO Jazz Tweet.

In order to bring together the next generation of digital innovators in Pakistan, Jazz has embarked on a journey in partnership with Khyber Pakhtun-Khawa (KP) Information & Technology Board (KPITB) and World Bank to further digitalise the eco-system of the province. In order to foster the digital eco-system of KP, jazz is investing its resources into 03 main components of the programs i.e.

• Digital Youth Summit: The aim is to bring together young digital innovators, tech industry leaders, start-up community and participants from private sector, investors, Government, Civil society and academia to mentor and inspire the youth of KP. Jazz Guru’s have been actively involved in this program since 2017 with the aim to help young entrepreneurs with creative digital ideas to build businesses and careers.

• The Youth Employment Programme: Having realised the issue of youth employment in the country, jazz together with KPITB and World Bank is providing a platform that connects youth in KP province with digital skills needed to help them get jobs, gigs and other paid work using internet. Under the YEP, jazz Guru’s are actively investing their time and expertise to build basic knowledge and understanding of the mobile internet by partnering with digital skills training toll-kit. This initiative will proliferate the benefits of connectivity and digital enablement to 40,000 youth in two years.

The selection of courses was done based on the sector skills analysis which helped identified the areas which have employment potential. So far Jazz Guru’s have provided expertise in the following course: 

• Social Media Marketing

• Blogging and content writing

• Digital Business communication

• Branding

• Mobile application

• Data Analysis

• Durshal: Durshal which means gateway in the local language is a Government innovation lab that provides co-working space for young innovators to come together and propose innovate technology solutions to local government and agencies for their governance and service delivery needs. Durhsal provides a vital link between the local governments, tech industry, IT entrepreneurs and investors to anchor KP’s digital transformation.

Jazz is supporting to the program not only financially but aslo providing mentoring to the start-ups housed at the Durshal labs under its Jazz Guru Program. Mentoring sessions are organised on monthly bases using a comprehensive curriculum designed together by Jazz and KPITB. Jazz Guru’s have conducted session on topics such as Entrepreneurship, Building your Start-up from Zero to Infinity, Organisation, Culture and Team Building, Leveraging Technology for Entrepreneurship and Market Research.

So far more then 100 volunteer hours have been invested by Jazz Guru’s in this project. These efforts have been highly appreciated both by the Start-ups and the management of KPITB. (Please refer to video Testimonials).