More than 500 students have completed a two-month digital skills training programme organised by RankingGrow, marking a milestone in the company’s efforts to give young people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) access to technical education and professional development. The closing ceremony was held at RankingGrow Tower in Haripur and attended by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ammad Ali, Metrix Pakistan Founder and CEO Hassan Nisar, and Zarar TV Founder and CEO Waqar Ali.
The programme offered free training in artificial intelligence (AI), digital marketing, cybersecurity, video editing, and graphic designing, fields that businesses, media organisations, and the wider digital economy increasingly rely on. Ammad Ali said RankingGrow has now trained more than 12,000 individuals across KP, and that financial barriers often keep young people from specialised training even as the growing use of digital technologies creates demand for workers with relevant technical knowledge. He said the aim is to help young people learn skills they can apply in their professional lives, adding that access to education and practical experience can open better opportunities for them. Training in this mix of subjects reflects where much of the demand sits for entry-level digital work, from content production and design to online marketing and basic security awareness.
One of the more notable outcomes of the programme was employment, with more than 30 students from the graduating batch offered jobs or paid internships within RankingGrow itself, giving them professional experience alongside their technical knowledge. Hassan Nisar said free training initiatives can reduce barriers to professional education, particularly for students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, and that cooperation between organisations can widen access to skills development and help young people prepare for employment. The ceremony builds on a training model RankingGrow has been running for some time. In May, the company organised a job fair at its Haripur headquarters that drew more than 1,500 students, professionals, and members of the business community, with over 1,000 training slots on offer, and Ammad Ali was honoured with the Pride of Pakistan award in August 2025 for his work on youth skills, after which he said he planned to provide free digital marketing and AI training to another 10,000 students.
Waqar Ali’s attendance brought representatives of the media, digital services, and youth development sectors together at an event focused on education, employability, and professional growth, and the discussion turned to the need for a skilled workforce in KP, where young people are increasingly exploring careers in digital marketing, creative services, cybersecurity, and technology. The event concluded with recognition of the graduating students and a call to expand access to practical education and employment opportunities across the province. Neither the company nor the speakers shared figures on how many of the remaining graduates have found work or plan to move into freelancing, so the real measure of the programme will be how many of the roughly 470 students without a RankingGrow offer convert their two months of training into income. For now, the 30 placements show that pairing free training with a path to workplace experience can produce concrete results, and it gives other organisations running similar programmes in the province a reference point for how that link can be built.
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