Enterprise Award - British Council Pakistan

Entrepreneurship and Enterprise

The Regional Challenge

	Enterprise Award Challenge

The Enterprise Award Challenge is part of British Council’s Skills for Employability programme and involves students aged 16 to 21 from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan all part of Central and South Asia (CSA) region. Through their ideas for finding solutions to a set challenge, students are encouraged to be creative and think outside the box as well as develop their skills of team work, problem solving, communication, financial literacy and leadership.

Research shows that a culture of enterprise in which people are encouraged to be creative, solve problems and drive change is an essential element to economic development, the creation of new jobs and the generation of wealth for both economic and societal gain.

		The National Challenge 2011

As a prologue to the fourth National Enterprise Award challenge, more than 10,711 students and 900 teachers attended the British Council’s workshops on social entrepreneurship; they were also educated on how to develop project plans. This knowledge was then shared with over 46,000 students in other TVET institutions through further trainings.

Despite limited funds, security problems and other operational constraints, the British Council Skills for Employability team inspired youth in over 70% of the total TVET sector of Pakistan to take the social entrepreneurial challenge.

As a result, 700 enterprising ideas were submitted from across Pakistan for the 4th national challenge. A panel of judges had the difficult task of deciding the National Winner of Pakistan in the national final held in December 2011 in Lahore.

An all girls team from the Government Polytechnic Institute for Women, Karimabad, Karachi emerged as the winners of the Fourth National Enterprise Award Competition. The team won a cash prize of Rs. 100,000 to implement their idea and a digital camera to record their progress to share with others. They have also got an opportunity to take part in the Global Enterprise Challenge to compete with national winning teams from eight other countries.

Please read further about the girls and their project

		The National Challenge 2010

The National Enterprise Award challenge took place in Lahore in December 2010 being the third National Challenge in Pakistan. This time we reached out to 400 colleges in all major cities of Pakistan and interacted with over 1000 students and 400 teachers with the concept of social entrepreneurship. As a result of this interaction we received more than 200 project proposals from the entire country.

Our team of expert shortlisted nine teams from which the team from Vocational Training Institute Green Town Lahore was declared the winner. They won Rs.50,000 in addition to 100000 they requested for their project and a chance to participate in the regional final which was held in March 2011 where this team came out as a joint winner along with the team in Nepal.

		The National Challenge 2009

The second was launched in September 2009 through a series of sensitization sessions in Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Lahore, Mirpur and Rawlakot. The sessions were attended by principals and senior teachers of over 550 VET institutions across Pakistan. A total 55 colleges from across Pakistan were short-listed and given training on Social Entrepreneurship and developing project proposals. British Council received 90 project proposals from students, out of which 11 were short-listed to take part in the national challenge. The Second National Challenge was held in Lahore amongst finalists in November 2009 and the Government College of Technology, Multan turned was named winner.

		The National Challenge 2008

The challenge started in September 2008 when students from 70 technical institutions across Pakistan conceived and put into action projects of different nature. These projects were showcased in Islamabad in November the same year and were evaluated on the basis of how they were adding value to society and how quickly it is able to generate income to become financially sustainable. Many innovative ideas came up during the competition.

The challenge was held in all CSA countries and each country had their own national winner. The Government Vocational Training Institute, Jhang won the national challenge in Pakistan and went to become regional winners as well.