YOUTH SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECT IMPLEMENTED BY UNIVERSITY OF BALOCHISTAN

Acronyms:

IMS: YSE: MOU: V.C: UOB:

Institute of Management Sciences Youth social entrepreneurship. Memorandum of association. Vice Chancellor. University Of Balochistan.

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Acknowledgement The development of this training report is the outcome of implementation of „Advancing Youth Social Entrepreneurship in Higher Education‟ project at University of Balochistan (UOB) comprising of a launching ceremony of the project, followed by 9 training sessions in which 300 students from different departments of University of Balochistan by Master trainers of Youth Social Entrepreneurship project. All the requisites as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) entered in by the University of Baluchistan with YES network Pakistan to rollout the USAID project have been fully met. Students from all departments have been given fair representation in the launching ceremony as well as Training Sessions of „Advancing Youth Social Entrepreneurship in Higher Education‟. The concept of Social entrepreneurship was very well received by students. Their keen interest in the YSE project and enthusiasm during launching & all training sessions was phenomenal. Overall all the objectives of the „Advancing Youth Social Entrepreneurship in Higher Education‟ project have been very successfully achieved. This work could not have been possible without the leadership, intellectual insights and advice from Dr. Jan Muhammad, Director Institute of management sciences (IMS), UOB and Mr. Abdul Naeem, Assistant Professor at IMS, UOB. Special thanks goes to Worthy Vice Chancellor UOB, Prof. Dr. Javeid Iqbal, the administration and management of UOB in general and Mr. Mohammad Tariq Jogizai Registrar UoB, in particular, for their valuable contributions in the successful implementation of the project and students of IMS, UOB who worked as volunteers with the facilitation team during the implementation of the project. It will be unfair not to mention and thank Dr. Akram Dost Baloch, DG Students Affair and Dr. Sayed Mohsin Raza, Meritorious Professor and Dean, for the cooperation and participation in the launching ceremony of the project at university auditorium.

Master Trainers YSE Project University Of Balochistan

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Introduction: While the social entrepreneurship field has been around for less than a decade in other parts of the country, social entrepreneurship in Balochistan is a novel concept to the students as well as general masses. Balochistan province remains largely underdeveloped, although several major development projects, including the construction of a deep sea port at the strategically important town of Gwadar has given development hope to the people of Balochistan. Economy of Balochistan is largely based upon the production of natural gas, coal and other minerals. Other important economic sectors include fisheries, mining, and agriculture. Province is rich in minerals like gold and marble but has no financial or Human Resources to create value from its precious natural resources. In the past, lack of economic growth, has led to income disparities, hunger, poverty, illiteracy, environmental degradation and many other social problems, potentially providing a seedbed for social unrest. The youth remains very frustrated with practically no hint of how best they could utilize their talent as well as the precious resources of their land to change the course of their nation‟s destiny. Not to mention the universities, institutes or organizations working for equipping the most precious resources of Balochistan i.e. Balochistan‟s Youth with the appropriate knowledge, skills, guidance and moral support are practically non-existent. Amongst all these problems and state of hopelessness in this province, introducing the concept of entrepreneurship & Social entrepreneurship is like the first step taken towards a prosperous and enlightened Balochsitan. The fact that these concepts are to be incorporated through investing in Baluchistan‟s Youth by equipping, mobilizing and making them realize that they are the ones to shape and transform their fate as well as their province‟s. University of Balochistan since its inception has been the premiere institution geared towards educating and grooming the youth of Balochistan. Being the largest public university that caters to all social classes of students, students from diverse background and all regions of Balochistan hail to UOB for their education. Being the center of education of students with such diversity, UOB could easily be thought of an institution to gauge the pulse of Balochistan‟s Youth. It is for these reasons of diversity that University of Balochistan entered into this project as administration here is very well aware of the fact that a little training of students of UOB can spur a change in the whole province. The master trainers realizing this great responsibility tried to invest their all energies in the implementation of this project with the strong belief that success of this project means being a step closer to triumph of Balochistan over its problems.

The determination, hard work and sincerity of all Master Trainers paid off as launching and 9 training sessions of YSE project as per MOU requisites have been met successfully not to 3

mention the enthusiasm with which the concept was received by students of UOB, guaranteeing the success of the project. The team of master trainers implemented the project in the following manner:   

Organized launching ceremony of the project. Organized 9 training sessions. Announced “Social Enterprise Competition” among students.

While other parts of the project are still in implementation phases. Following requisites of the project as per MOU have been tried to be achieved:    

Development of entrepreneurial drive among students of UoB. Training for Faculty Members and Students in the field of Social Entrepreneurship. Provision of Interest free loans & opportunities to students of UoB to set up Social Enterprises & building up Entrepreneurial culture in UoB by starting Enterprise Competitions. Integrating the concept of Social Entrepreneurship in to the curriculum.

1: Launching Ceremony of the YSE project: Launching ceremony was attended by students from different departments of the university. The chief guest of the launching ceremony was V.C UOB Prof. Dr. Javeid Iqbal. The ceremony was also attended by Registrar UOB, Dean Student affairs Dr. Akram Dost Baloch, Dr. Sayed Mohsin Raza, Meritorious Professor and Dean, Director IMS Dr. Jan Muhammad, faculty members of IMS and other departments, Master Trainers of BUITEMS, Govt. Girls College, Quetta and students from different departments of UOB.

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Report on Launching Ceremony of Advancing Youth Social Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

Date: TIME: Venue: Report by:

25th October, 2014 10.00 AM Auditorium of Arts block, UOB. Qurat-ul-ain Sultan and Sana-ur-Rehman

Proceeding: The opening ceremony was started with the recitation from the Holy Quran by Mr. Karimuulah. After the recitation from the Holy Quran, the stage secretary Ms. Qurat-ul-ain Sultan and Mr. Tauqeer Ahmed – Master Trainers formally welcomed the participants and described the purpose of the event. Ms. Qurat-ul-ain Sultan invited Dr. Jan Muhammad, Director Institute of Management Sciences (IMS), to propose a welcome note to the gathering.

Welcome Address: Dr. Jan Muhammad, Director Institute of Management Sciences (IMS), thanked the participants from different departments. Talking to the gathering the director IMS said that “YSE Project is a great initiative that could prove to eradicate not only social problems but also will help in the economic betterment of the people of Balochistan. He also told the audience that it is the time to equip our youth with the entrepreneurial skills so that they not only create employment opportunities of their own but also for their communities.”

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Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship and YSE project: Stage secretary Ms. Qurat-ul-ain Sultan and Mr. Tauqeer Ahmed –Master Trainers introduced the concept of social entrepreneurship briefly to the audience. They said “Though the concept of social entrepreneurship is relatively new but it cannot be denied that it is need of the hour. Every single person wants to see positive change in the society and for bringing this change social entrepreneur could prove to be very helpful.” A short video about how social entrepreneurs bring positive change in the world was shown to the participants. Introducing the project stage secretaries said “This project aims to sensitize and engaging top leadership and faculty members of our institution to promote a culture of entrepreneurship among its students. Not only this but this project also offers technical training sessions to students in order to enable them to transform their ideas of change into reality. It also offers to provide financial support to the best 50 ideas identified in the training sessions by providing interest free loan of Rs.1000/- as seed/motivational money for converting ideas into enterprises. These 50 ideas will also be entered into a social enterprise competition in the final step of the project. Hopefully by the end of all this we will be able to infuse in the minds of our students the concept of bringing change in the society by entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.”

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Briefing on the social Entrepreneurship: Dr. Sana-ur-Rehman, Assistant Professor briefed the participants on the concepts of Social Entrepreneurship project. He explained to the participants the changes that a social entrepreneur can bring to this world and why it is crucial for our province and country. Explaining with the help of statistics he said that it is beyond Govt.‟s capability to solve all social problems. If we are so desperate to see things changing around us for good, we must start actions and contribution toward helping our society and addressing social issues. Briefing on the YSE Project: Furqaan-ul-Haq Siddiqui briefed the participants about the project. He mentioned the objectives that the project aims to achieve as:    

Development of entrepreneurial drive among students of UoB. Training for Faculty Members and Students in the field of Social Entrepreneurship. Provision of Interest free loans and practical opportunities to students of UoB to set up Enterprises & Building up Entrepreneurial culture at UoB by starting Enterprise Competitions. Integrating the concept of Social Entrepreneurship in to the curriculum.

He further told the participants that the program aims to train 300 students from different departments of the university in 9 training sessions starting from Monday, October 27, 2014 at Institute of Management Sciences. He also told the participants about the areas these sessions will cover. He showed some of the slides for the training sessions too. He thanked the participants in the end for their interest and participation on the project and said this step may not change all the things that we wish but it is a step towards the direction in which we may bring change.

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Remarks of the Chief Guest: Prof. Dr Javeid Iqbal, Chief Guest of the launching ceremony thanked the Master Trainers and IMS for inviting him as a chief guest. He also congratulated them on the successful organization of the event. Addressing the august gathering he said that “It is a matter of great pleasure that our university is offering this type of training to the students on the concept of social entrepreneurship with the help of USAID and YES Network Pakistan. I can see this initiative of USAID and YES network going a long way achieving all the desired outcomes. He also said that it cannot be denied that our university is producing thousands of graduates every year and some of them could not get employment in public or private sectors. Not to mention this unemployment of youth is giving birth to many social evils. In such a situation, it is the need of the hour to introduce and motivate our youth towards the concept to social entrepreneurship and business entrepreneurship. He further said that equipping our youth and students with the skills of self-employment is crucial. Making our youth aware of the social problems and prompting them to think and feel the responsibility of doing something productive for changing the fate of our people for the good is must. Developmental concepts interwoven in the concept of social entrepreneurship is required to make our youth productive for the whole society and to finally start our journey towards prosperous Balochistan and Pakistan.”

He also said that “With the increasing number of problems in our society we cannot rely solely on Governments for the solution of our problems. Rather equipping and empowering youth by initiating programs like “Youth Social Entrepreneurship project” to become agents of positive change through their involvement in civil society, economic development and communities could pull the country out from prevailing crises.”

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Feedback of students and participants: The enthusiasm among the students was commendable during the launching ceremony. Participants were of the view that it is a great initiative being taken by USAID and YES network and it will bring great results. Students were very interested to know about the training sessions being conducted and showed great enthusiasm towards attending these training sessions. Vote of Thank: Dr. Sana-ur-Rehman, – Assistant Professor thanked all the participants for their presence and support. The guests then were asked to come to the stage for a group photo. In the end refreshments were served to all participants.

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Pictures of the launching ceremony:

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2: Training Sessions: 300 students were training in 9 training sessions being conducted at IMS, UOB. 30-35 students on average form different departments were trained in each training session.

1: Training sessions began with the introduction of the facilitator and students. 2: Then a brief view of the problems underlying our society was presents connecting it to the need to adopt social entrepreneurship while distributing the file and different forms that YES provided to Master Trainers. 3: Then students were briefed about social entrepreneurship and the YSE project. 4: A video was also incorporated in every training session to motivate and inspire students. 5: Students were asked to fill in the forms provided by YES network. 6: Students were told about the Social Enterprise competition and the last date for submission of applications as 25th November 2014. 7: Students were told about the financial and technical help that USAID & YES network were willing to offer to the students with novel ideas. 8: Students were asked to contact the facilitators if they need any help. 9: Refreshments were served. The PPT slides were used in trainings sessions.

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Pictures of training sessions:

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Pictures of training sessions:

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Conclusion:

Overall the project has achieved its objectives in Balochistan University, so far. The concept which is very new for the student of Balochistan province is received positively and its importance is recognized and appreciated.

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