Category: Education

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) gave an extravagant welcome to the newly qualified ACCA professionals in the country at the New Member Ceremonies held in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Themed ‘Shaping the future in uncertain times’, the events were a living proof of how ACCA is enabling its members to think ahead and turn challenges into opportunities for the benefit of the society. The events celebrated over 700 newly inducted ACCA members and fellow members who come from diverse backgrounds but follow the same journey as their peers globally. The events also recognised ACCA’s prizewinning students, newly awarded approved employers, Practical Experience Supervisors and winners of ACCA advocacy awards.

ACCA’s head of Pakistan, Assad Hameed Khan, initiated the ceremonies by welcoming the new members including fellows and high achievers, emphasising on the vital role played by professional accountants in nation building as well as contribution towards an inclusive, resilient and sustainable national economic growth.

Speaking to the new members, ACCA President, Joseph Owoloabi, said:

‘Accountancy is an increasingly meritocratic profession, where the content of your character and the quality of your mind and your work mean much more than nationality or background. Your global credentials mean that the welcome mat will be

rolled out for you by top employers all over the world, in all of the 178 countries where our members are active.’

In a video message, President Dr Arif Alvi, said,

‘ACCAs certainly have the potential to change and rebuild the economy of Pakistan. The accountancy profession plays a central role in the economic development of any country. Accountants are uniquely placed to help drive transparency and be at the forefront of the global fight against corruption.’

Chief Guest at the ceremony in Lahore, Governor Punjab, Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman, said, ‘Pakistan looks forward to ACCA’s strategic business leadership for a better tomorrow.’

Notable leaders who spoke at the new member ceremonies included Kabeer Naqvi, President & CEO, U Microfinance Bank, Faisal Mushtaq, CEO, TMUC, Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, Founder, Nutshell Group, Faisal Qamar, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Decibel HRMS and Sajid Hussain, CEO, SKANS School of Accountancy.

Seed Ventures joined ACCA as this year’s co-organisers. Bank Islami and The Coca-Cola Company were the Strategic Partners. Platinum Partners included SKANS School of Accountancy, U Microfinance Bank, and The Millennium Universal College. Telenor Group Adroit Accountax/ Obox Accounting, National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited, National Disaster Risk Management Fund, Tabani’s School of Accountancy, PAC Group of Colleges and Mirchawala’s Hub of Accountancy supported as Gold Partners. TCM – The Centrum Media joined as Outreach Partner and KPMG and Nutshell Group were the Knowledge Partners.

The event was also supported by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC), Pakistan Stock Exchange, Special Technology Zones Authority, Pakistan Software Houses Association, KP Board of Investment and Trade, The Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (PBC), ICMA Pakistan, National Incubation Center, Universal Service Fund, Punjab Board of Investment & Trade, Punjab Information Technology Board, Central Power Purchasing Agency, and the CFA Society Pakistan.

ACCA has more than 227,000 fully qualified members and 544,000 future members worldwide. They’re among the world’s best-qualified and most highly sought-after business professionals – and they work in every sector, everywhere in the world.

Spotify transformed Haveli Barood Khana into a breathtaking journey to leave attendees spellbound.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Given the importance of music culture emerging from the country, Spotify hosted its first Masterclass for the entire artist community in Lahore to create awareness of music streaming trends, listener growth & new features. Among other leading voices from the music industry, who attended the event, there was also a renowned music producer, curator and artist, Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan, also known as Xulfi, sharing his perspective on the Pakistani music industry.

Artists, artist managers and labels had the opportunity to learn about how they can maximise their growth on Spotify through the session on the Spotify For Artists and panel discussion with Xulfi on the trends in Pakistani music industry, making music, pitching for playlists and the relevance of audio streaming.

The series of Masterclasses being conducted by Khan FM, Artist & Label Partnerships Manager for Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka at Spotify in Pakistan are designed to provide aspiring musicians from the local landscape to comprehensively embrace and utilize the tools that are available to them through the streaming service, helping creators build and grow audiences with new and enhanced tools. With the first event conducted in November last year in Karachi, the Masterclass format has evolved, adding a distinctive touch to it for the latest edition. The event enabled artists to learn more about how Spotify can advance their careers substantially through its massive local and global outreach along with the breadth of offerings that it provides access to.

Spotify also showcased a suite of tools that help artists find the fans who’ll love their music most. Here are a few of the new features they will soon find in the Campaigns section of Spotify for Artists:

• Discovery Mode is a tool through which artists and their teams identify priority songs, and Spotify will add that signal to the algorithms that shape personalized listening sessions. Today, Discovery Mode is directly available within Spotify for Artists, and accessible to a wider range of artists and their teams, including thousands of independently distributed artists and labels. The company also shared more details on the next revenue line it wants to help artists grow: merchandise and live events.

 

• New Concert and Merch Discovery tools will help make sure concert-goers never miss another show. Listeners will begin to see merch offers and concert listings in far more places across the app.  If a show catches a fan’s eye, they can tap a new ‘interested’ button to save the listing to their own calendar in the Live Events Feed. Users can adjust their location and browse concerts worldwide, all personalised to their taste.
• Spotify is also expanding its Fans First program to include more artists, ensuring top listeners receive emails and notifications that give them special access to concert pre-sales and merch exclusives.

Held at the iconic Haveli Barood Khana, located in the Walled City of Lahore, the event featured an interactive and immersive music experience to elevate the vibe altogether in the most innovative way possible. The Masterclass was designed not just to pique interest but to deeply engage those attending the event, in a unique journey that showed the music development  trajectory in the country from ancient times to nowadays.

The event had over 110  artists & their teams who registered for attending the Spotify for Artists Masterclass. Some prominent names from the music industry in attendance included, Talal Qureshi, Rizzy Rozeo, Hasan & Roshaan, Taha G, Maanu, Members of Rock bands Karakoram & Bayaan & many more.

“Our objective with Spotify for Artists Masterclass has always been to provide an easily accessible platform that puts listener data directly in the hands of artists so that it can be utilized to the max! ” said Khan FM, Artist & Label Partnerships Manager, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka at Spotify. “We want to bring more artists from Pakistan onto our platform enabling them to reach a wider audience across our global markets. Spotify for Artists Masterclass and industry expert session in Lahore brings us a step closer to that goal. With this year’s event being organized in Lahore, we redefined the overall experience in a way that it takes people on an adrenaline pumping experience that eventually culminates in them discovering the knowledge that they set out to seek”, he concluded.

 

LUCKY CEMENT LIMITED CONTINUES ITS COMMITMENT TO EDUCATION BY BUILDING A NEW PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL IN DISTRICT LAKKI MARWAT.

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir)  Lucky Cement Limited, in collaboration with The Citizen Foundation, has successfully completed the state-of-the-art school in the vicinity of our Pezu plant premises. The “Abdul Razzak Tabba Block Lucky Cement Limited Pezu Campus-I” for primary classes, while the “Muhammad Yunus Tabba Block Pezu Campus-II” will be for secondary classes. The admissions for the first batch of 2023 are underway. This school is in line with the UNSDG “Quality Education” and emphasizes the importance of quality education for all. In addition to these educational initiatives, Lucky Cement Limited has successfully inducted the 3rd batch of students for a vocational training program in collaboration with NLC (ATINs) for permanent residents of District Lakki Marwat. This initiative aims to provide skill-based training to the youth of the region, enabling them to secure employment opportunities in the future. The previous two batches, trained with collaboration of Hunar Foundation, have already completed their trainings and have been employed in our factory in their respective fields, which is a source of pride not only for candidates and their families but also for Lucky Cement Limited. Lucky Cement Limited is also providing intermediate scholarships to students from District Lakki Marwat to support their academic pursuits. Furthermore, under its commitment to support education in District Lakki Marwat continuing over a decade, Lucky Cement is extending its support by offering higher education scholarships to university students from District Lakki Marwat, in top business and engineering universities of Pakistan. “We are confident that all these activities in the area of education and skill development will have a positive impact on the lives of the residents of District Lakki Marwat,” added the spokesperson. “This additional project in collaboration with The Citizen Foundation is a significant step towards providing quality primary and secondary education to the children of the district and will play a major role in enhancing the education standard in the rural area of District Lakki Marwat.”

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) and Lahore School of Economics (LSE) have created an innovative digital skill development program that aims to not only train its learners but understand how Pakistan’s female citizens can be best encouraged to participate in the workforce. In this pilot program female students from select government colleges will be given access to digital courses that are in high demand in the current job market. This pilot program is unique because it engages both the female students and their parents to understand the underlying reasons of why parents proactively do not invest in daughters’ education and identify relevant factors that prevent girls from taking up skills training programs. The program is part of PSDF’s specialized training areas Uraan and e-tayyar which aim to develop crucial digital skills amongst its female learners to increase women’s confidence and access to skills that increase their employability. The partnership with LSE is to conduct research and create evidence-based development programs that will accelerate the socio-economic abilities of female citizens and encourage female labor force participation (FLFP). Head of Marketing and Communication at PSDF Akbar Hussain explains, “The partnership between PSDF and LSE is a step in the right direction. The pilot program will train 300 female students in digital skills, and we expect to complete it by May 2023. Students will also receive a stipend upon successful completion of their training. Based on the success and evidence generated by the pilot –we aim to launch this program on a larger scale so more women can benefit from this”. One of the key economic issues facing Pakistan is the low level of female participation in the job market. In Punjab alone, there are around 44.5 million females of working age however, only a quarter participate in the labor market. Studies have shown that lack of encouragement, family support and adequate skills prevent women from entering the labor force and accessing income-generating opportunities. 

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir)

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) brought together key public financial management stakeholders at the Pakistan Public Sector Conference 2023 held here in Islamabad yesterday. The leaders explored the challenges and the solutions that face public sector professionals as they work towards transforming the public sector finance. The conference was aimed at developing a knowledge sharing platform in Pakistan for key public sector stakeholders, including the government, international development partners, public sector finance professionals and other key enablers in the public sector ecosystem.

The importance of professionalisation and strengthening of Public Financial Management (PFM) remained the main focus of the conversations, as well as the evolving role of finance professionals in building public trust.

Tariq Bajwa, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance, was the Chief Guest who spoke about the evolving role of finance leadership in the public sector and emphasised on the importance of promoting sustainability-driven capacity building, policies and practices in the public sector.

In the opening remarks, Assad Hameed Khan, Head of ACCA Pakistan, said:

‘Accountancy is at the centre of public sector transformation in Pakistan. Finance professionals need the right skills to improve PFM and drive policy and spending decisions resulting in a resilient, inclusive and sustainable economic development of Pakistan.’

‘ACCA’s 67,000 public sector members and future members around the world make an extraordinary difference to the lives of so many, playing a key role in the delivery of public services and setting the regulatory environment to meet societies’ global challenges,’ he added.

Dr Irum Anjum Khan, Additional Auditor General, Office of Auditor General of Pakistan, delivered the Guest of Honour address and expanded on the role of the Supreme Audit Institution in building and enhancing public trust in the public sector.

The event also featured two insightful panel discussions with representation from key public sector stakeholders and other key enablers in the public sector ecosystem.

The first panel, moderated by ShahBano Khan, focused on the need to strengthen professionalisation in the public sector. The panellists included Salman Amin from the Ministry of Privatisation, Adnan Rafique from the Department of Auditor General of Pakistan, Inam Ullah Kakra from KPMG and Shahzad Hassan, Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues, Controller General of Accounts.

The second panel discussion deliberated on recent developments in public sector reforms and transformation. The keynote for the session was delivered by Abbas Naqvi, Partner and Head of Risk Management at KPMG. The panellists included Noaman Ali from The World Bank Pakistan, Nadeem Wali from USAID, Kamran Rashid Khan from the Department of Auditor General of Pakistan, Anam Hussain from Oxford Policy Management, and Naveed Aziz from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

ACCA’s global head of public sector, Alex Metcalfe, presented on the role of government balance sheets for sustainable public finances. Hammad Yunus, CEO, PFM Solutions, delivered a keynote explaining ACCA’s PFM capacity building framework aimed at strengthening and enhancing the results of PFM reforms through professionalization of the public sector and alignment with the national sustainability agenda. It was highlighted that the sustainability reporting and assurance are evolving rapidly and will play an increasingly prominent role in the public sector.

The conference concluded with closing remarks delivered by Asad Mehmood Malik, Head of Business Development – North, ACCA Pakistan.

The event was well-attended and provided a forum for public sector specialists and professionals to stay abreast with the latest in the public sector and learn from the experts.

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir)

As employers around the world today mark International Women’s Day, ACCA is emphasising the importance of flexible working and training in accelerating diversity.

Remote and hybrid work, education and training are proving invaluable in extending access to opportunity and ACCA is calling on employers to maintain the momentum.

Following the completion of a major piece of research surveying 8,000 finance professionals around the world, ACCA has found most people want hybrid working, believing it makes them more productive, with additional benefits reported by women.

ACCA’s 2023 Global Talent Trends report found that while men and women valued hybrid working almost equally (at 88% and 86% respectively), women felt the benefits of remote working more significantly, with 73% of women saying felt they were more productive when they worked remotely, in comparison to 66% of male respondents.

Findings of the research suggest hybrid working also leads to better outcomes overall in terms of mental health and retention, with hybrid workers less likely to leave their organizations. But employers are still working through the potential impact on teamwork and collaboration.

Women felt better able to manage the impact of remote working on collaboration and engagement, with a lower percentage reporting they found collaboration harder when working remotely (43% in comparison to 52% of male respondents), or that they felt more disengaged.

ACCA Chief Executive, Helen Brand OBE, said: “Flexible approaches to working are bringing significant benefits to all, but can particularly helpful to those where geographical, financial or additional commitments create restrictions that can impact on working location or hours.

“The cultural changes brought about by the pandemic, along with evolving technology, mean remote work and study is now an option for a greater diversity of people. As employers consider the culture of their organizations, it’s important this inclusivity benefit is kept front of mind.”

While not all work and study can be undertaken remotely, such as in the healthcare and construction sectors, increasing flexibility and access where it is an option can increase diversity. ACCA is committed enhancing inclusivity for its members, and future remembers, and remote learning and exams also plays a part in extending the opportunity of professional careers to many more people.

Helen Brand added: “E-learning has brought extra flexibility to study, giving people who live in remoter areas, or with challenging commitments outside of study, the scope to build education into their lives. It opens up the promise of a profession to many who might have been excluded until now.”

Download the full ACCA Talent Trends report here.

Find out more about ACCA’s International Women’s Day activities here.

 

Non-profit GCT in past 29 years never experienced any of its charitable schools in remote Sindh shut due to law and order.

Karachi (Nut Desk)

Non-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT) striving to enroll out-of-school children in remote and deprived parts of Sindh hasn’t experienced closure of any of its schools, not for a single day, due to any security-related issue in the past 29 years since its inception. This was disclosed by Chief Executive Officer of GCT, Zahid Saeed while speaking at the fundraiser of his non-profit for the schooling of over 30,500 children from deprived families based in underprivileged parts of Sindh. The children are enrolled in 160 charitable schools in remote and rural areas.

“On the basis of our continuous work in the past 29 years we are able to bust two very popular myths about Sindh: one is that feudal landlords of the province don’t allow the opening of quality schools in their areas and secondly they oppose schooling of native girls,” said Zahid Saeed. He said that GCT opened its schools in such remote and backward parts of Sindh where there was no prior government-run school. “Even then our schools never ever faced any law and order problem,” he said. He told the audience that out of a total of over 30,500 children in the GCT’s schools, 14,500 were girls showing that his charity had faced no issue in enrolling daughters belonging to deprived families. “Our way of working is that prior to the opening of a new school in a faraway area, we take into confidence its influential persons about our plan to spread education in his area and we always get fullest cooperation from the elders of the community that is going to be benefited from our charitable activity,” he said. He also said that GCT with support from the concerned philanthropists, its generous donors, the corporate sector, like-minded charities, and government agencies would continue with its drive to educate children from the backward areas in Sindh. He informed the audience that the GCT had the aim to increase the number of its charitable schools to 250 having enrolment of a total of 100,000 children from destitute families till 2025.

Zahid Saeed said that some 25 million out-of-school children were one of the most serious national issues in Pakistan and all the relevant NGOs, charities, government, and public sector institutions should join hands to tackle this problem in the shortest possible time. He said that Pakistan had the massive potential to become a superpower like China in a few years but for such a goal it is necessary that each and every child in the country should get quality schooling.

Speaking on the occasion, GCT Patron-in-chief, and noted industrialist, Sardar Yasin Malik shared with the audience his personal story of how education had enabled him to progress from an ordinary street common man in Karachi to becoming the country’s top taxpayer. He said that education was the only way forward for the new generation of underprivileged families to come out of the vicious circle of poverty, backwardness, and exploitation. He advised the audience that after attaining education one should practice entrepreneurship for securing financial empowerment in the shortest possible time. He praised Zahid Saeed’s commitment to building charitable schools in the remotest parts of Sindh where concerned parents didn’t have the financial means to educate their children.

Renowned actor Adnan Siddiqui conducted the fundraising session and get overwhelming support from the audience, comprising noted Karachi’s businessmen and industrialists, for the education drive of the GCT. Mr. Siddiqui urged other top celebrities in Pakistan to come forward and join the charitable drive to enroll millions of out-of-school children in every part of the country.

A documentary, produced by Pakistan’s celebrity YouTuber, Junaid Akram, was also screened to pay tribute to the GCT for reviving schooling in the shortest possible time in the vast parts of Sindh devastated by floods in 2022.

Karachi (Nut Desk)

Noteworthy people from different walks of life will attend an event in Karachi on Friday (tomorrow) to reaffirm their commitment towards the cause of education for all children in Pakistan.

The event is being held under the aegis of the non-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT) to raise funds for the schooling of over 30,500 children from deprived families in Sindh. Noted persons who are likely to attend the fundraiser include former Sindh Governor, Imran Ismail, President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Muhammad Tariq Yousuf, renowned industrialist, Sardar Yasin Malik, who is also patron-in-Chief of Green Crescent Trust and other hundreds of leading businessmen in Karachi.

GCT CEO, Zahid Saeed expressed his determination to raise Rs 500 million through a series of resources mobilization activities, including, fundraisers in a few major cities in Pakistan, like the forthcoming event in Karachi, pre-Ramadan and Ramadan-based fundraising campaigns for the schooling of up to one year of over 30,500 children from destitute families. These children are enrolled in 160 charitable schools of the GCT in Sindh.

He recalled that recently concerned philanthropists and businessmen from Lahore at a fundraiser generously donated for the schooling of 3,500 children from the underprivileged families in Sindh.

He said the support his non-profit had received from concerned businessmen in Lahore made him optimistic about enrolling hundreds of thousands of out-of-school children in Sindh under a joint effort by the Government of Sindh, concerned charities and leading philanthropists.