PASTIC Organizes Capacity-Building Workshop on Microsoft Office for PSF Officials.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Centre (PASTIC) National Centre hosted a comprehensive one-day capacity-building training workshop titled "Microsoft Office for Science Assistants and Ministerial Staff of PSF" at the PASTIC IT Lab in Islamabad. Organised specifically for the employees of the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), the initiative was aimed at upgrading intermediate to advanced digital skills, enhancing daily workplace productivity, and streamlining official reporting and administrative workflows across departments.
The training was formally conducted by Dr. Maryum Ibrar, Additional Director (STI) at PASTIC, who served as the Resource Person. Grounded in a practical and hands-on approach, the workshop covered the essential core applications of the Microsoft Office suite - Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - offering step-by-step guidance, real-life administrative exercises, and interactive problem-solving.
The morning session opened with an intensive module on Microsoft Word, focusing on official document structuring, advanced formatting techniques, section breaks, and automated tables of contents. Participants were trained in handling bulk correspondence through Mail Merge, implementing document security, and utilizing review tools such as Track Changes and comments to ensure administrative accuracy and compliance.
The mid-day & final segments transitioned into Microsoft Excel, concentrating on efficient data handling, data cleaning, sorting, filtering, and data validation. Dr. Maryum Ibrar demonstrated the practical application of essential statistical and logical functions, before guiding attendees through data visualization, reporting, and summarization using Pivot Tables and conditional formatting. The workshop concluded with a practical assessment and participant feedback evaluation session to measure skill acquisition.
At the conclusion of the session, Director General PASTIC, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Akram Shaikh, addressed the participants, highlighting the paramount importance of continuous capacity-building initiatives. He emphasized how targeted technical workshops directly enhance employee performance, foster operational efficiency, and strengthen overall institutional output.
The successful completion of this workshop reflects PASTIC National Centre Islamabad's continued commitment to capacity building, knowledge sharing, and the promotion of modern practical skills across the scientific and administrative community!