Over 40 students from 14 schools gathered in the capital for a UPSHIFT mentoring workshop. They brought business ideas to refine during the five-day event. The workshop aimed to improve their social innovation ideas to secure funding for scaling up their projects. The students were selected from last year’s National Innovative Challenge.
UPSHIFT is an initiative of UNICEF’s Office of Innovation. It is a youth social innovation and social entrepreneurship programme that supports adolescents and young people to identify problems in their communities and design solutions to tackle those problems. It is designed to bridge the gap between education systems and the work environment.
The UPSHIFT workshop was aimed at refining the students’ business ideas and providing guidance on incubating their concepts.
“The overall aims and objectives behind organising this programme are to empower and to innovate young people to bring changes in the country,” said Kinley Tenzin, director of YDF.
The students are working on ideas for a device that reports harassment, ensures security and monitors stress levels. They aim to secure funding to develop and present their pitch for the final event.
“Even if I don’t succeed in education, I can be a successful entrepreneur. It is not just a programme for entrepreneurship skills, but an interactive session where we can make a lot of friends,” said Tshering Dawa, a participant from Khamdang Lower Secondary School, Trashi Yangtse.
“This programme has taught us that good teamwork can achieve better results. I also learned that there are no boundaries and age limits in innovation since primary students are also taking part in this programme,” said Deki Woetso, a participant from Phuentshogling Higher Secondary School, Chhukha.
“We took them through the real-time exposure of doing business because we use the experiential exercise method to get hands-on experience for the students,” said Dipan Pradhan, Resource Person.
After this workshop, each team will be assigned a mentor. They will meet virtually over the next two months to develop their business ideas.
In December, the top two ideas will receive seed funding to implement their projects from UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Loden Foundation and Innovative Bhutan.
Bhutan Youth Development Fund in collaboration with UNICEF organised the workshop.
Phub Dorji
Edited by Sonam Pem
