The Fourth Global Challenge was held once more online, this time on a global level involving eight teams from Pakistan, Turkey, South Afirca, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Kazakkhstan, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Macedonia. The purpose of having it online was to reach out to more people through the exceptional work of these enterprising young people on one platform, which otherwise would not have been possible. The Virtual Final was held in March 2012 involving national winners from all eight participating countries.

Based on the online voting by the general public and assessment of 3-member jury, the team from South Africa were declared as the winners.

The Third Regional Challenge held in March 2011 where 5 teams from the Central and South Asia region including Pakistan competed with each other. The challenge was held online and the team from Pakistan were announced as joint winners along with Nepal.

Congratulations to the forward looking enterprising girls and boys from the Vocational Training Institute, Green Town Lahore for winning this regional challenge.

Each member of the team received a laptop from British Council as a congratulatory token for winning the challenge. They have also started their project in Lahore with the prize money they won as national winner.

Below is the brief summary about the project and the reason that inspired them to come up with this idea.

“Lack of a proper and affordable diagnostic facility for hepatitis in Pakistan was the driving force behind this project”, said Fayyaz Hussain, teacher of the winning team of National Enterprise Award.

The Skills for Employability programme recently held its third National Enterprise Award Competition in Pakistan, which was won by a team from the Vocational Training Institution, Green Town. The team consisted of four forward-looking young girls and boys who completed this winning project. They will now represent Pakistan in the Regional Competition.

Their project was setting up small diagnostic centre in Green Town, which is one of Lahore’s most densely populated and low-income areas with an approximate population of 600,000. The team will get their requested Rs. 100,000 to begin the project and is confident to pay back the funding to British Council within a year.

“The competition was tough as hundreds of schools from across Pakistan were participating, but we were confident to make it to the top 20 at least, because the problem we were catering to was genuine and our solution was practical”, said Asia Kausar who was leading this team, “but winning the national competition was surely a surprise”, she added with a wide smile.

This year British Council reached 400 colleges across Pakistan and directly interacted with over 1000 students and 400 teachers with the concept of social entrepreneurship. As a result more than 200 project proposals from the entire country were received. Our team of experts has shortlisted eight teams who competed finally for the third National Challenge.

The Second Regional Challenge was held online using the latest communication technology. The purpose of having it online was to reach out to more people through the exceptional work of the entire region’s enterprising youth. The Virtual Regional Final was held in February 2010 involving national winners from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Khazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. The team from Kazakhstan came out to be the winners.

They won one-week attachment with Enterprise UK to get hands-on training on Social Entrepreneurship Skills.

British Council piloted the Enterprise Award Competition in 2009 and the results were excellent with students showing keen interest and enthusiasm.

The first Regional Challenge was held in March 2009 in London. Pakistan was made proud when the Pakistani team from Jhang were declared winners by a panel of highly distinguished judges comprising of Tim Campbell, Iqbal Wahab, Khalid Sharif, Elizabeth Crowther-Hunt and Mark Stephens. The judges rated the teams on their idea, market research, finances, their presentation and the responses to the questions asked.

Besides Pakistan, teams from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Nepal participated in the first Regional Challenge.

Click here to find out about their journey from Jhang to London