The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held a ceremony today marking the successful completion of a six-month Energy Sector Internship Program that provided recent energy-degree graduates with on-the-job experience and skills training.

 

The program also sought to promote the inclusion of women in energy sector workplaces. Female interns comprised more than 30 percent of the total participants in the program.

 

“Our Energy Sector Internship Program, which paired 135 interns with 17 energy entities, is an example of the long-term, creative collaboration between the United States and Pakistan in the energy sector,” USAID Mission Director John Groarke said. “I look forward to seeing our graduates apply their new skills in the energy sector workforce, and I hope to see a significant increase in the number of women hired in technical and managerial positions.”

 

Internship graduates shared their experiences and spoke about their future plans. “This program seems to be my gateway to a future career applying specialized knowledge,” program graduate Fiza Mazhar said. “What I learned is far more sophisticated than what I imagined.”

 

The Energy Sector Internship Program was implemented by the USAID Training for Pakistan Project. The U.S. government, through USAID, has committed US$33.9 million to provide capacity development programs that benefit Pakistanis in various sectors, including energy, economic growth and agriculture, resilience, education, and health. USAID aims to train over 6,000 Pakistanis in these sectors by May 2017.

 

For more details regarding USAID’s work in energy sector, visit: https://www.usaid.gov/pakistan/energy.