CIRCLE is a leading social enterprise focused on women’s participation in the economy through advocacy, research, entrepreneurship, digital skills and innovative leadership labs. CIRCLE believes that investing in women is the smartest economic venture of today! When women grow, families prosper and nations progress. One of our key business challenges in Pakistan today is the lack of women in technology. With less than 25% women in the formal labor force and only 14% of them in the IT workforce, we believe that women are Pakistan’s most underutilized potential. To close the digital gender divide, Tech Karo was initiated in Karachi on 22nd February 2018. Tech Karo is an 8 months demand driven training program run by CIRCLE, where students are provided with tech education to enhance their economic opportunities, tech mentors to provide inspiration to change mindsets, and special training for women to overcome their constraints and embrace the future as tech professionals. Students are taught front-end web development through software like HTML, CSS3, JavaScript programming, and mobile web apps. Tech Karo has been a huge success and has received an overwhelming response from the students, most of whom are determined to join the workforce and are eagerly looking forward to marking their presence in the field of tech. To encourage these students and add to their training through on-the-job experience, ibex volunteered to hire 5 female students in Karachi, in the user interface teams of connect, cx, and digital. Through these internships, the students will gain the experience of working in a professional environment, and have the opportunity to put their skills to use with training from the team leads. Let’s hear what some of the Tech Karo students have to say: “I am very grateful to Tech Karo. Prior to joining the program, I used to work as a teacher, working long hours and earning a low salary. Now, I am a front-end web developer intern at Ibex, learning new things and earning much more .” - Rabia Aziz "I discovered a new love for coding when I joined Tech Karo. After 8 months of training, I have been offered an internship at IBEX. I want to thank Tech Karo for giving me a new life." - Maria Azhar “Before Tech Karo, I did not know about any type of computer languages, how to use them and what is the result of each. Thanks to Tech Karo, Now I am able to use these languages – Shagufta Islam “Before joining Tech Karo I did not know the technicality of web designing. However, after joining IBEX as an intern, I have gained UI/UX designing experience and have been appreciated by my team lead for brilliant animations” - Niha Amin We are really excited to be part of the journey of these young women and we wish them all the best in their quest to become top tech professionals in Pakistan.