The four-day “Refresher Training of Trainers” conducted by ILO Pakistan with the collaboration of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) at HEC Regional Campus concluded on Friday with the distribution of completion certificates among the participants.
The training was part of the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme, which is ILO’s global management-training initiative focussing on starting and improving small businesses as a strategy for creating more and better employment, particularly in emerging economies. The overall SIYB objective is to contribute to the economic development by establishing/strengthening enterprises and creating new and better jobs.
This training conducted by SIYB senior master trainer Gemunu Wijesena, who had come all the way from Sri Lanka for this purpose, was a follow-up of the Training of Trainers (ToT) imparted earlier to heads and supervisors of Business Incubation Centers (BICs) established at leading universities across Pakistan.
‘It was also an opportunity to evaluate the impact that the earlier training had had and listen to the experiences of the participants and success stories of the entrepreneurs they had mentored’, says Munawar Sultana, Officer in Charge of ILO Pakistan’s Gender Equality For Decent Employment (GE4DE) project.
The participants included representatives from BICs established at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad; Institute of Space & Technology (IST), Islamabad; COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad; University of Agriculture (Faisalabad); IBA (Sukkur); Balochistan University of Information Technology (Quetta) and University of Malakand. In addition, two skills development partner organizations also participated in the training namely Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) and Baltistan Cultural Development Foundation (BCDF).
Explaining the background of the initiative, Sultana said the establishment of Business Incubation Centres (BICs) at Universities across Pakistan is a relatively new initiative of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. These centres, she said, provide new enterprises with subsidized facilities, mentoring, consultancy and networking opportunities to enable them to mature into viable businesses. Therefore, equipping the staff with requisite skills is vital for success of this initiative.
In this backdrop, she said, HEC requested ILO for collaboration to introduce and roll out ILO’s SIYB in Pakistan through these Business Incubation Centres. She said the activities included institutional capacity building by provision of Training of Trainers (TOT) to staff designated at BICs to extend gender mainstreamed business development services to start and strengthen new small businesses.
The SIYB main components include how to “Generate Your Business Idea, Start Your Business and Improve Your Business” through interactive and participatory training techniques and also participation in Business Game, where virtual environment of real world market is created. The participants are also taught about costing, stock control, record keeping, and formation of linkages with key capital providers, product development, and product placement, use of conventional and digital marketing tools and so on.
During the training, the participants also shared their experiences. Mohammad Ahsen Mirza, Project Director, COMSATS, Islamabad said he could site two startups-“Smart Sense” that manufactures high quality LED lights locally and “Apni Bijli” that is about producing portable solar energy boxes-that benefitted from his training experience.
Farrukh Bashir, Manager Staff Training, Punjab Vocational Training Center (PVTC), said the training helped his organisation manage similar six trainings to the passing out students with an aim to help them set up businesses instead of looking for jobs.
Nabeel Nisar, Consultant BIC, IBA Sukkur, He also shared the example of a barber Sarfaraz Hussain who brought a major turn-around in his business in Sukkur after getting “Improve Your Business” training. His shop has free wi-fi, executive lounge for customers waiting for their turn, staff to serve complimentary tea, tools sterilizing machines etc.
Wazir Ejaz Hussain, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Baltistan Culture & Development Foundation (BCDF), Skardu, said he mentored a beneficiary Shakoor Ali from Shigar who made products of Serpentine stone. This person got a boost in his business when he improved his products and opened outlets at more visible places.
