Center of Entrepreneurial Development, IBA Karachi holds graduation ceremony of its flagship programs

The Center of Entrepreneurial Development (CED) at Institute of Business Administration (IBA) held the convocation of its three flagship programs on Thursday. The graduating entrepreneurs included inspiring women from the WomenX Program, a highly motivated batch of Certificate in Entrepreneurship (CIE) Program and young engineers in the making from NED University of Engineering & Technology of the Technology Entrepreneurship Program. The budding entrepreneurs celebrated the convocation with high spirits in the presence of IBA’s Dean and Director Dr Ishrat Hussain, CED’s Program Director Dr. Shahid Qureishi, various faculty members and eminent guests from the corporate sector.

IBA-CED is one of the top three entrepreneurship centers outside of the United States of America. Here is a look at some of the programs that they have initiated to foster entrepreneurship.

WomenX Program

WomenX Program is a World Bank funded initiative in collaboration with Enclude. The four month certificate program primarily focuses on polishing entrepreneurial skills of aspiring female entrepreneurs who have initiated their ventures and are looking for market penetration. The first two batches of the program had women participants with startups ranging from food, clothing and tech industry.

The curriculum blends hands on exercises with traditional coursework to equip women with skills that can help them boost their startups. The curriculum covers wide array of topics that include: entrepreneurship, communication, human resources, marketing, accounting, legal issues and strategic vision management. The program also provides networking and mentorship opportunities with successful Pakistani entrepreneurs and also includes lectures from international faculty.
The WomenX welcomed its third batch of women entrepreneurs this August. These aspiring female entrepreneurs have startups ranging from tech, food and clothing industry. The fourth batch is likely to commence from January 2016.

Inspiring entrepreneurs of the second batch of WomenX Program

Certificate in Entrepreneurship (CIE) Program

CIE is a new initiative of IBA-CED and was launched in January 2015 as a weekend certificate program. The program focused on fostering entrepreneurial thinking in the participants and to inspire them to initiate their ventures by the end of program. The first batch of this program had majority of full time employees with an average of seven years experience in their respective industries.

With the traditional curriculum, “Open Air Rocket Pitch” was introduced as a new concept of presentation. Like all IBA-CED programs, the participants had access to networking and mentorship with various successful entrepreneurs. The CIE initiative turned out to be a major access leading towards the announcement of Certificate in Entrepreneurship Fall 2015 program, starting from September 2015.

Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP)

IBA-CED has collaborated with Nestle Pakistan to launch an Entrepreneurship Development Program. This collaboration will continue over the course of three years, training three batches. The program will focus to transform the resource driven mindset of students to an opportunity recognition approach. The students will be enabled to make use of modern and innovative agricultural and business management practices ranging from on-farm and off-farm value addition, innovation and growth in the agriculture sector of Sindh.

The curriculum will comprise of modules regarding entrepreneurship, finance, HR, supply chain, IT and Agriculture. Students will have access to mentorship and technical experts from the industry. Students will also be benefiting by networking opportunities with business leaders and both local and international investors.

The deadline to apply for this program is 6th September 2015. Online applications are available here.

IBA-CED runs various other programs and short courses throughout the year. Other popular and successful programs have been Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship & Family Managed Business, Accelerator Program, and Technology Entrepreneurship Program.