Program Overview

More than 60 percent of Pakistan's population is currently under the age of 30, with over 31 percent falling in the 15-29 years' age bracket. This youth bulge offers prospects for peace and growth driven by dynamic, engaged and productive young citizens. It also provides a unique opportunity and resource for Pakistan's economic and social development, provided that youth are appropriately skilled and educated in order to meet the requirements of the labor market. However, a large proportion (32%) of youth are uneducated with no vocational skills; consequently, they remain either unemployed or under-employed.

UNDP Pakistan has engaged Institute of Business Administration (IBA) to facilitate Entrepreneurship training and mentoring of 500 vulnerable youth in marginalized areas of Karachi. Building on IBA's extensive experience of working with Entrepreneurs throughout Pakistan, the Youth Employment Project (YEP) will provide these young men and women from some of the most impoverished areas of Karachi with opportunities to acquire Entrepreneurial skills to develop the mindset and start their own businesses. The potential beneficiaries were the students and graduates of various technical training programs at STEVTA Technical Training Institutes and other Technical Training Institutes in Karachi.

Under this UNDP Youth Employment Project (YEP) 200 skilled-based women were trained in Karachi on how to start their own small-scale entrepreneurial ventures. These women participants were divided into 4 batches with around 50 participants each. These women were selected from various Vocational Training Institutes (VTI)'s across Karachi and were imparted business training to start and to up-scale their business ventures.

The program encompassed training on various modules including: Development of an Entrepreneurial mindset, Start-up Business Model Canvas, Basic IT Skills, Marketing & Sales, Operations, Basic Finance Concepts in Business context, Soft Skills, Law and the Development, refinement and presentation of Business action plans.

Program Description

UInitially, IBA will train 50 STEVTA Faculty Members in IBA City Campus. The training will involve developing their mindset with the award-winning Entrepreneurship curriculum of IBA. They will be taught how to promote this mindset among their students. After training, they will become IBA Teaching Fellows and will be part of IBA team for training of students.

For 500 youth, IBA will conduct a 50-hour Entrepreneurship certificate course in IBA City Campus. The certificate course is aimed at providing Entrepreneurship and Life Skills Training to start their own businesses.

The curriculum was designed based on the TNA recommendations. The entire curriculum was designed in Urdu to facilitate the participants. The teaching methodology included a mixture of theory and experiential learning.

The program will have following salient features:

• The curriculum will be based on a mix of classroom training and experiential learning exercises
• The students will be given 8-days training, spread over a period of 2 months
• After completion of training at IBA, select successful Entrepreneurs will provide mentoring and hand holding to these students to support their small startups
• IBA will also provide these students a unique opportunity to become part of a large Entrepreneurial network throughout Pakistan
• The students are provided 100% scholarship and stipend, sponsored by UNDP Pakistan

Benefits of the Course

• The participants will gain access to quality course material, which will serve as foundation for their entrepreneurial venture.
• Internationally trained faculty will facilitate the learning process
• Set up linkages and networks to gain practical exposure to what they want to do.
• Leverage the IBA CED existing eco-system and network
• Possibility of Incubation space at IBA
• Increase in confidence and decision-making abilities.