On 1st December 2018, CodeGirls launches the 1st graduation ceremony of its Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 at 10 Pearls. The graduation ceremony was attended by the boot camp participants, trainers, mentors, sponsors, organizers, community leaders and friends of the program.
The ceremony started with a welcome note by Shamim Rajani (Founder – Consulnet Corporation, COO – Genetech Solutions). Shamim talked to the audience and stated:
- More than half of our population is women and according to Business Recorder, only 22 percent of women officially partake in some economic activity in Pakistan. This is one of the lowest rates of female labor force’s participation in the region, second only to Afghanistan. In the tech industry itself, there are very few trailblazers and we alone cannot make a dent.
- According to an article published in Forbes in September 2017, Software and IT Services is the highest paying industry in the world followed by Hardware and Networking. So it’s pretty obvious that if we are looking toward the economic upliftment of our people quickly, then we much focus on this industry and train quality human resource. I think with CodeGirls we have touched that cord and become the trailblazer. We hope that more organizations will follow the same path.
- The support and promotion from the WomenInTechPK community are highly commendable.
- We have also been very blessed to be supported by our male counterparts for this program so I want to thank them as well especially my Dad, Turab Hussain Hemani and Hasnain Bhai Walji for trusting and believing in our vision and wholeheartedly sponsoring us so we can focus on the core training. I want to mention the support that I received from my team at Genetech – each of them understood the value of the program and brought forward new ideas of improvement and pitched in extra time.
- I want to mention the support that the Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) has extended to the program by encouraging its member companies to offer paid internships to our graduates.
Her talk was followed by a video note from Dr. Hasnain Walji (Executive Director – United Global Initiative).
Faiza highlighted the following points:
- Internship opportunities for graduating students are lined up.
- Next Phases, Phase2 & 3:
- Graduated students from Phase1 will move to Phase2, which has 3 tracks, Advanced Programming, Software Quality Assurance, and Graphic Design. Students can pick either one and will go through 101 hours of tech training and 24 hours of non-tech training.
- Successful participants from Phase2 will be moved to Phase3, which has 100 hours of freelancing training to make them financially independent and to create an income stream for their families.
- Starting Phase 2 in February 2019 and Phase 3 will start from July 2019.
- Working on creating a “Train The Trainer” program which will enable us to replicate this program to other locations (cities & countries).
- We will be building a new lab and will acquire more infrastructure to expand the program.
- Expand our outreach to the local and international tech industry for both training and infrastructure sponsorship and internship opportunities for the future cohorts.
At the end of each cohort, participants have to work together to make group projects related to web development and they are graded based on their performance in the team project as well as class participation and individual viva. This time, top 7 project teams presented their work to the audience. List of Projects which were presented:
- Project Name: Ghar Apna, Link: http://propertyfinding.consulnet.net/
- Project Name: DARN Learning Studio, Link: http://learningstudio.consulnet.net/
- Project Name: Female Senior Citizens, Link: http://seniorcitizens.consulnet.net/
- Project Name: The Best Food, Link: http://thebestfood.consulnet.net/
- Project Name: Helping Young, Link: http://helpingyoungs.consulnet.net/
- Project Name: Breakout, Link: http://breakout.consulnet.net/
- Project Name: Chalkboard, Link: http://chalkboard.consulnet.net/
Jehan Ara joined the audience and talked about the following:
- Praised the team for being relentless and diligent and reaching out to people and organizations and forming a network.
- Should also invest in a program for boys/men.
- Extended support to Faiza & Shamim for CodeGirls personally and from PASHA’s platform.
Other highlights:
- Arif Asaria from NASIMCO will be hiring a couple of students for their web development projects.
- Naureen Anwer from Systems Ltd will give 4 paid internships to our graduated participants.
- Zohaib Khan and Sultan Hamdani want to hire participants after they have gone through the Phase 2 of CodeGirls boot camp.
- Trainers, Mentors and Team Member received presents from Genetech Solutions and Enchante.
One of our venue sponsor (Sana Hussain, Head of HR – 10 Pearls) gave an intro of 10 Pearls University. She announced 3 paid internships for our graduated participants.
Neelam Raheel gave a shout out to all Sponsors, Organizers, Trainers, and Mentors. All graduating participants received their certificates and top 10 participants received a brand new laptop, sponsored by United Global Initiative and present from Secure Beans and Ann Creations. Trainers and mentors of the program also received a memento of thanks, certificates and presents from Genetech Solutions and Enchante.
The sponsors include Genetech Solutions, United Global Initiative, Secure Beans, Ann Creations, and Enchante. Whereas the notable guests were Turab Hussain Hemani (CEO – Genetech Solutions), Sana Hussain (Head of HR – 10 Pearls), Danish Ejaz (Managing Director – Madvertisingpk), Shahid Rawjani (Hyderi Benevolent Trust), Arif Asaria (NASIMCO), Naureen Anwar (VP – Systems Ltd.), Jehan Ara (President – PASHA, Founder – The Nest I/O), Zohaib Khan (CEO – A2Z Creatorz, Senior Vice Chairman – PASHA), Sultan Hamdani (CEO – Maison Consulting, Member CEC, PASHA), Maheen Noor Soomor (CEO – Mushawar Consulting UK), and Sukaina Abbas (CEO – Enchante)
Cohort 1 & 2 graduated 79 out of 81 participants. The stats are as follows:
- Enrolled Participants: 120
- Retained Participants: 81 (67.50% of total enrolled)
- Graduating Participants: 79 (97.50% of total retained)
- Dropouts: 39
- Unsuccessful Participants: 2
The top 10 Position Holders of Cohort 1 & 2 are Fizza Roohani, Huda Mohsin, Fasiha Mubeen, Sakina Zehra, Javeria Salam, Kaneez Fatima, Zahra Fatima, Zain Fatima, Kauser Fatima, and Diya Fatima.
Neelam Raheel concluded the ceremony by asking participants to network with their trainers, mentors and other guests. If you want to become a patron to the program, please see our sponsorship proposal here.
About CodeGirls:
CodeGirls is a community-funded Coding and Business Skills boot camp, designed for girls/women to learn how to code and start and run their businesses. The program is in multiple phases and is changing 220 lives every four months. CodeGirls is run by ConsulNet Corporation, in partnership with United Global Initiative and WomenInTechPK along with their various local and international sponsors.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CodeGirlsbyConsulNetCorp/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CodeGirlsKhi
Website: https://codegirls.consulnet.net/
Hashtag: #CodeGirlsKarachi
Pictures are available here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/CodeGirlsbyConsulNetCorp/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1772567206186597
