STAFF REPORT LHR: The four-day “Refresher Training of Trainers” conducted by ILO Pakistan with the collaboration of the
Higher Education Commission (HEC) at HEC Regional Campus has concluded with the distribution of completion certificates
among the participants.
The training was part of the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme, which is ILOs global management-training
initiative focusing 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
Pakistans Gender Equality For Decent Employment (GE4DE) project.
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 HEC. These centres, she said, provide new enterprises with
subsidized facilities, mentoring, consultancy and networking opportunities to enable them to mature into viable businesses.