Karachi: Public Affairs Officer John Warner presided over the opening of a two-day Entrepreneurship Education Summit hosted by the Balochistan University Partnership Program.
This program is a two year “Building Bridges” partnership between the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and three universities in Balochistan: the University of Balochistan, Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University Quetta and Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences. Dr. Javed Iqbal, Vice Chancellor University of Balochistan, startup business representatives, and representatives of the Balochistan universities were in attendance.
In his opening remarks, Public Affairs Officer John Warner noted how proud he was the United States supports this 86 million rupee program and that “when we bring together energetic and innovative minds from our two countries, the results are powerful.”
Rebecca Howland, program manager at the University of Massachusetts Civic Engagement, said “the summit participants will engage in discussion and interactive presentation aimed at building a practical understanding of entrepreneurship education practices while using an educational framework to create a dialog between various levels of relevant parties.”
The Balochistan Consortium University Partnership is the first academic linkage funded by the U.S. government between Balochistan and the United States and is part of the twenty country-wide university partnerships between Pakistan and the U.S.
This entrepreneurship education summit’s main objective is to bring together entrepreneurs, academics, administrators, policy makers, industry experts and community members to discuss the current entrepreneurial ecosystem and the role higher education institutions play in preparing students for careers as entrepreneurs.
Summit participants were engaged in panel discussions and interactive presentations aimed at building a practical understanding of entrepreneurship education practices and its challenges. This summit will also help in opening a dialog between the various levels of relevant parties with the goal of improving the entrepreneurial climate and education in Balochistan, and all over Pakistan.
The main themes of summit were following:
1) Entrepreneurship Education: Promoting Students’ Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
2) Building Entrepreneurial Environment: Prospects and Challenges in Entrepreneurial Development in Balochistan
3) Teaching Methods in Entrepreneurship
4) How WHO we know determines WHAT we know: A Network Theory Approach to Change
5) Connecting the Dots: Leveraging the universities existing network” Panel Discussion
6) Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Panel: Importance of social entrepreneurs in developing communities
7) Starting a Dialogue Session: Creating an open dialogue about collaboration between relevant parties, Universities, HEC, Government, Industry, NGO’s and the community.
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