KARACHI: Jubilee Life, Pakistan’s leading life insurance provider has partnered with SEED Ventures for the 2nd Enterprise Challenge Pakistan, a Prince’s Trust International programme. This was announced at the project signing ceremony held recently at the Head Office of Jubilee Life. The signing ceremony took place between Jubilee Life MD & CEO Javed Ahmed and SEED Ventures CEO & Co-Founder Faraz Khan, in the presence of Prince’s Trust International CEO Jonathan Townsend.
Enterprise Challenge Pakistan (ECP) is a pan-Pakistan, inter-school competition that encourages young people to explore entrepreneurship as a career path. It is offered to secondary school students within the age bracket of 13-16 years in various schools across the country. ECP is essentially a simulation business challenge where students playing in teams of four or five employ their creativity in cyber-scenarios. Each team is mentored by industry experts to help these students understand the basics of an enterprise, business strategy and financials. The objective is to profitably run an enterprise and the team with the highest net profit is declared the winner.
On this occasion, Jubilee Life CEO and MD Javed Ahmed, said, “We have seen from the example of fast-growing countries that phenomenal economic growth is propelled by entrepreneurship. To promote entrepreneurship, it is important that the people with innovative ideas and skills have access to vital resources such as mentorship, finances and knowledge to initiate new business, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. ECP is a great initiative for this cause and we are glad to be their partners in promoting the enterprise culture in Pakistan.”
Prince’s Trust International Chief Executive Jonathan Townsend said: “Prince’s Trust International is excited to be partnering with SEED Ventures for a second year, bringing the Enterprise Challenge programme to Pakistan. Following the successful launch of the programme in 20 schools last year, this year we celebrate 44 schools joining the programme. This is a significant achievement, extending delivery even further across Pakistan, delivering in key cities as well as reaching many more young people from more remote and under-served areas of the country. I am delighted to have been able to witness the achievements of the hundreds of young participants taking part in the programme.”
SEED CEO and Co-founder Faraz Khan said, “Enterprise Development is SEED’s core mandate, and we understand that young people can contribute immensely to this ecosystem. Hence, the pace, quality and scale of Enterprise Challenge Pakistan are of utmost importance and we need to engage our budding entrepreneurs from a very early age as they have the potential to resolve the economic challenges and bring about an immensely noticeable change in the country’s economy.”
Prince’s Trust International is the most recent addition to The Prince’s Charities, formally launched in 2015 to share the successful programmes and expertise of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales’s youth charity, The Prince’s Trust. Over 40 years The Prince’s Trust has helped more than 870,000 disadvantaged young people across the United Kingdom to turn their lives around; three in four young people supported to move into work, education or training.
Prince’s Trust International works in partnership with the private sector, governments, and civil society in countries around the world to support young people aged 13-30 into work, education or training. By working with local partners Prince’s Trust International create opportunities for young people in communities around the world to thrive and support them to build their skills and confidence.
ECP, an initiative of Prince’s Trust International, is executed in Pakistan by SEED Ventures as the local Founding and delivery partner. The competition also runs in Jordan and the United Kingdom. In its very first year, the programme was delivered in 10 cities in Pakistan with over 300 students from 20 schools participating in the competition, supported by over 40 mentors. In two years, Enterprise Challenge Pakistan has been delivered in 28 cities and reached over 10,000 students with 675 participants in 2017.
Jubilee Insurance is a global brand of Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) that offers diverse insurance solutions (life, health and general) in the Asian and East African markets. Jubilee Life in Pakistan offers a uniquely designed range of life and health insurance plans, catering to various customer segments and needs. These include retirement, child education, marriage, saving & protection, wealth accumulation, life insurance plans for women, rural insurance plans and life and health insurance solutions for the less privileged of our country. The company also recently launched Takaful business to cater to all Pakistanis.
