UpWork is one of the world’s largest online workplaces to hire freelancers. Formed as a merger between Elance and oDesk, the portal is home to nearly three million new jobs every year.
Now, the freelancing platform has launched a new social initiative called the “Social Impact Program” which aims at helping freelancers from undeserved communities develop their careers.
What is the Social Impact Program?
Upwork’s Social Impact Program (SIP) is designed to help potential clients identify and work with freelancers from underserved communities.
The platform will assign special badge for Social Impact freelancers to use on their profiles. Moreover, it has also brought onboard a number of organizations that clients can use to connect to people from underserved communities who are building their careers.
Pakistani freelancers can benefit from the following incentives if they become part of Upwork’s SIP Program:
- A dedicated Upwork mentor providing profile and proposal analysis,
- Extra connects as needed,
- Priority access to some job posts,
- Social Impact Badge on their profiles,
- Priority registration for agency and freelancers and,
- Landing page listing to attract clients.
Social Impact Program partners from Pakistan
Upwork has partnered with a number of social organizations dedicated to bringing greater economic and social opportunity to people around the globe. At least two of these partners are from Pakistan:
1. Women’s Digital League
The Women’s Digital League is a social enterprise owned and powered by Pakistani women. It provides digital services to clients including accounting, administrative assistance, SEO, and more.
Their aim is to empower women to earn a livelihood and to work for the economic development of the country by mobilizing a dormant workforce of educated and skilled women who are either discouraged from working or have trouble finding work opportunities.
“Matching a client’s project with the right freelancer for the job, we are sure we can deliver work that meets the high standards expected by our clients at competitive rates that are fair to the team member.”
Specialty:
- Accounting
- Administrative assistance
- SEO
- Social media marketing
- Software testing
- Process improvement
- Project management
- Writing (content, creative, and technical)
2. Empower Pakistan
Empower Pakistan is a social venture that wants to train the youth with necessary skills to help them find better opportunities in the global economy. Their main focus is on skills like design, content, and web development.
Upwork’s SIP in Pakistan is led by Empower Pakistan which is aimed to empower the people of the country through Digital Skills Building (such as freelancing) and Digital Employment. This partnership will allow Empower Pakistan to promote socio-economic development in the region by bringing more and better digital work opportunities to the skilled yet socially underserved communities of Pakistan.
Specialty:
- Graphic design
- Web design
- WordPress
- Brochure design
- Content writing
“We are delighted to work with Empower Pakistan and their freelancers. Helping talented people throughout the world find each other and work together without limits is what Upwork strives to do.” – Elizabeth Tse, Senior Vice President Operations at Upwork.
You can register as a freelancer with Empower Pakistan here.
CEO Empower Pakistan, Sajid Shah, (second from left) with Upwork’s Senior Vice President, Elizabeth, and the SIP team
Where is empower Pakistan link?