LUMS School of Education Collaborates With KPK Government for Youth Entrepreneurship Education Programme. The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) School of Education (SOE) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government today announced a partnership for education and entrepreneurship at an event held at the Chief Minister House, Peshawar. A Service Level Agreement was signed between LUMS and the KP government between Vice chancellor Prof. Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi and KP Director General Youth Affairs, Mr. Asfandyar Khan Khattak. A Service Level Agreement was also signed between Dr. Naqvi and Dr. Mohammad Mohsin Khan, Director Institute of Management Sciences.
This landmark collaboration between LUMS and the KP government aims to harness the skills, passion and commitment of largely rural KP youth and to bring them into the economic mainstream as job creators rather than future job seekers. The programme will identify potential entrepreneurs who can be groomed, coached and developed to turn their ideas into viable, sustainable businesses.
Under the programme, the KP government will provide funding to promising business ideas and start-ups with unique products and/or services. The programme structure has been designed by LUMS and entails training various cohorts directly and selecting at least seven universities in KP, preferably those more accessible to young entrepreneurs from rural communities, to join the cohorts with at least two observers/trainees. LUMS will provide oversight and stewardship to these seven universities to bring them to the same level as the cohort being developed by LUMS itself.
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Addressing the ceremony, LUMS Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi said, “Our youth is our future. We are proud and delighted to be working with the KP Government on this ground-breaking initiative that focuses on entrepreneurship as the vehicle to improve the economic wellbeing of the youth. LUMS will share all of its learnings and provide oversight and stewardship to selected universities in the province, so that the impact of the initiative may be enhanced.”
The KP government has allocated Rs.500 million for the KPIC, of which 84% will be given as grants directly to successful applicants and 16% will be used to implement the programme by the LUMS SOE.
“This collaboration with LUMS is a great one. At this point in time, there is no better project than this for the youth of KP. Our main target is to engage the youth in the province and establish them as entrepreneurs as well as bring back the youth who have moved out of the province and established their businesses elsewhere in the country. We are not talking about 330 people in fact this will impact 330 families and eventually more than 50, 000 people” said Mr. Asfandyar Khan Khattak at the occasion.
Commenting on the partnership, LUMS School of Education, Associate Director Dr. Mariam Chughtai said, “Youth in KP are most enterprising and resilient, yet they are economically marginalised and socially misunderstood. This collaboration between LUMS and seven KP universities is specifically designed to help unleash the talent in KP youth for sustainable capacity building across communities in the KP province.”
This legally binding partnership, spearheaded by the LUMS School of Education (SOE), includes the National Incubation Centre (previously known as the LUMS Centre of Entrepreneurship) as the execution partner, the Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences) as the local implementing partner.
The collaboration will also facilitate the objective of the LUMS School of Education to conduct research, policy and practice in the education landscape of a globally marginalised region of the world.
Dignitaries at the event included, Mr. Mohammad Tariq Khan, Secretary for Tourism, Sports, Archaeology and Museums, Culture and Youth Affairs; Mr. Pervez Khattak, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shabana Gul, Faculty Member IMSciences and Dr. Qazi Waheed, Assistant Professor Entrepreneurship.
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