Ministry of IT & Telecom with PSEB Celebrates graduation of U.S SLED Training Programme

Pakistan Software Export Board under The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has hosted an event at the National Incubation Center (NIC) Islamabad to celebrate the closing ceremony on the the U.S. SLED Procurement Training Programme. The programme has been supported by the Special
Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and delivered by Collab P in collaboration with RedMarker Systems.

The U.S. State, Local, and Education (SLED) market is one of the largest procurement ecosystems globally and represents an estimated USD 1.85 trillion in annual public-sector. Itincludes 50 state governments, municipalities, school districts,colleges and universities andexpands over 90,000 decentralized public-sector entities and issues more than 500,000 solicitations every year. The programme is focused on the services that Pakistan can deliver such as cloud mitigation, cybersecurity modernization, AI enabled service delivery, data analytics, managed IT services, education technology, and
digital healthcare.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Federal Minister for Information Technology & Telecommunication Ms Shaza Fatima Khawaja said, "Based on the vision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, we have revised all our training programmes to ensure that the success of programmes to be based on employment and direct access to market. I am proud to say that the SLED programme in collaboration with PSEB will accelerate our export growth to the U.S.."

This training programme has been designed as a strategic intervention to bridge Pakistan’s existing capabilities with US market demand focusing on transformation of talent into contract readiness. In pursuance of this, the Ministry of IT and Telecom launched a pilot training programme aimed at strengthening procurement readiness and improving access to international market.

The six weeks training programme included 140-150 training hours through a through a hybrid model consisting of learning management system and live sessions, implemented at a cost of 6.9 million and executed in two stages.

The original pilot was designed for 50 professionals from Software Export Board (PSEB) ecosystem. Participation increased to 74 candidates and firms which were supported by the training consortium with no extra cost to the government.

The US SLED Programme aims to strengthen Pakistan’s export model by creating a stronger relation with the international markets. The trained cohort has already generated an export pipeline with a combined revenue potential of USD 22.8 million.

Farhan Esar Shah, CEO of Collab P, remarked that the programme execution was directly led by the Federal Minister IT & Telecom’s vision for the youth of Pakistan.

He said: "Structured access into the world's largest public procurement ecosystem is a new export engine for Pakistan. Our objective is to enable Pakistani companies to move beyond traditional outsourcing toward sustained participation in highvalue U.S. government supply chains."

The graduation of this first cohort reflects the continued efforts of the Ministry of Information Technology &
Telecommunication and PSEB to open new international markets for Pakistan's technology industry. Building on this foundation, PSEB will continue expanding structured pathways of this kind, positioning Pakistani IT companies to compete in high-value public-sector markets around the world.