The Punjab government has launched a new digital skills training programme, Mein Digital-II, offering a monthly stipend of up to Rs5,000 to help women and young people learn skills they can use to earn money online. The initiative is aimed at people who want to work from home, whether by freelancing, selling products on the internet or starting a small online business, and it removes one of the biggest obstacles to learning: the cost of spending months in training without an income.
The programme has been introduced under the leadership of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, and it is being run by the Punjab Skills Development Fund, the provincial body that manages skills training across Punjab. According to the fund, the training will be delivered through instructor-led online classes, so participants can join from home and learn in a structured way. Alongside the classes, participants will receive mentorship from experts who can guide them on improving their digital skills and finding their way in the online marketplace.
The idea is to make digital training genuinely accessible. Many young people in Punjab already know their way around a phone and social media, but turning that familiarity into an income takes specific skills: how to win work on a freelancing platform, how to set up and run an online store, how to market a product, and how to manage payments through digital banking and wallets. Mein Digital-II is built around exactly that kind of practical learning, with the aim that graduates should be able to start earning within months of finishing the course rather than simply holding a certificate.
The monthly stipend is the part of the announcement that will matter most to many families. Under the programme, eligible participants may receive up to Rs5,000 a month while they train. The government has not yet shared the detailed conditions for receiving the money, and that is something applicants will need to watch for as the programme opens up. In earlier rounds, the stipend was tied to attendance and performance, with the full amount paid to trainees who kept attendance at 80 per cent and scored at least half marks, and a smaller amount for those who attended regularly but scored lower. Payments were made every two months as a single sum of Rs10,000, sent through JazzCash to the mobile number registered against the trainee’s national identity card.
Mein Digital-II is the latest round of a flagship initiative that the fund describes as bringing the digital economy to the doorsteps of educated rural women. The programme offers six months of free online training in high-demand fields including freelancing, digital marketing, e-commerce, web development, graphic design, content creation, coding and cybersecurity. It is run in collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board and the Virtual University, and it aims to reach more than 27,000 women from rural districts of Punjab. Around 3,000 women have already been trained under the programme so far, and the fund says its graduates are equipped to earn from home by building their own digital businesses.
The support on offer goes beyond the classes and the stipend. Selected participants in earlier rounds received desktop computers worth up to Rs250,000, along with internet access for the duration of the training, and the programme provides mentorship, career counselling and help with job and freelancing applications. That matters because the cost of a computer and a connection is often the first barrier for a young woman in a village who wants to learn digital skills, and a stipend alone does not solve it.
The programme is aimed at women aged 21 to 40, with priority given to those under 30, who live in rural areas of Punjab. Applicants apply online through the fund’s website, and the residence requirement is checked against official mapping of rural areas. The fund has warned applicants to use only its official website and to beware of fake sites asking for money or personal details.
Mein Digital-II is part of a wider push by the Punjab government to open up online work, especially for women. A companion initiative, e-Learn She Earn, was launched with a budget of Rs700 million to give women free three-month online training in fields such as digital marketing and e-commerce, graphic design, virtual assistance and digital customer care, along with free laptops, monthly stipends and internet support. That programme is open to women aged 15 to 35 across Punjab.
For the young people the programme is meant to serve, the test will be whether the training leads to actual earnings. The fund’s stated aim is that graduates should start earning within six months of completing the course. Interested candidates can visit the official Punjab Skills Development Fund website at www.psdf.org.pk for updates on the programme and registration details, and they should keep an eye out for the detailed stipend conditions as they are announced. If the programme delivers on its promise, it could give thousands of women and young people in Punjab a way into work that does not depend on leaving their homes or their villages.
