08 Oct, 2024
In Bangladesh, every year 2 Mn youth are added to the job market while only a handful of jobs are on offer. Thus, it is hardly possible to match employment opportunity for this huge flock. Other side of the story, the biggest freelancing platform Upwork is ready with 10 Mn jobs to offer and worldwide, the average earning of a freelancer per hour is $21. If we can ensure the skills match, Bangladesh can be the biggest supplier in the global freelancing market, and this can become our national economic success story!
With this objective, Grameenphone Academy has launched ‘Freelancing Factory’ with an ambition to make a pool of 106 students to earn $1000 in 8 months through a mentor-led upskilling program. Hans Martin, Chief Corporate Officer of Grameenphone, officially kicked off the program and accoladed the diverse cohort with a demography of 40% female and 19% outside of Dhaka. Two young mentors, Yasin Ahmed and Muntasir Hasnat, have taken the challenge to guide the selected students to make this pilot project a success. The students will learn UX/UI and Web development through WordPress through 64 online class during this time in two (2) separate batches.
Two students from audience panel shared their experience and expectation which are testimonials for the validity of the initiative. Tamanna, resident of Borguna-Amtoli, came to Dhaka just to join the session. She completed a number courses from different platforms including Grameenphone Academy but she is in need of hand holding instructions to implement the learning to earning. Tamanna is one of the qualified students, out 600+ applicants, who passed the two level assessments.
Ragib Raiyan; BSc Engineer from Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal-Mymensingh; with hearing challenge expressed his hope and confidence to start earning through this guided learning program. Sayeda Tahya Hossain, our Chief Human Resources Officer, motivated the participants and encouraged them to learn skills and look for opportunity to apply them in a wider domain. Grameenphone CEO, Yasir Azman, inspired the crowd with the story of Zero to one, encouraging the youth to break the zero and start their earning journey. Overwhelmed to see and hear the stories of the enthusiastic youth, our CEO also expressed his desire of being a freelancer if he got the opportunity to restart his career!
The following workshop was conducted by both the instructors who shared the curriculum and the detailed learning plans for the next Eight months. Students were inquisitive expressing their solid expectation from the program.
Head of Talent Management, Rifaqat Rasheed, and Farhana Islam, Head of ESG along with their team also joined the session and expressed their intention to make the program scalable to create a rolling and sustainable impact to the economy of Bangladesh.
Finger crossed for the Freelancing Factory to kick start the earning journey!
