Beaconhouse National University (BNU) is set to commence its first ever five-day start-up and accelerator creative business training programmes from Oct 27. The programmes are being offered under the Pakistan's Creative Future project in partnership with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with support from the Korea Funds-In-Trust (K-Fit). The programmes will be conducted at BNU's Tarogil Campus, Raiwind Road, Lahore.

Within the framework of the 'Strengthening regional and national capacities to develop cultural and creative industries in Asia and Pacific' project, UNESCO is seeking to empower creative entrepreneurs in Pakistan and to raise awareness of the importance of cultural and creative industries for sustainable development. The motivation behind the programmes is to inspire and cultivate entrepreneurial potential in the cultural and creative industries including cinema/audiovisual arts, design, media art, music, performing arts, publishing, visual arts, cultural management and digital cultural and creative sectors.

The open call to apply for the programmes was made through an online application form floated over social media in the last week of August. The deadline was set for Sep 30. The call received a very encouraging response and was accessed about 2,000 times which resulted in 240 applications for 12 slots on the programmes. Of these, 135 made to the long list of applications from across all provinces of Pakistan and the Federal Capital, Islamabad. By gender, 34.1 percent applicants were female versus 65.2 percent male and 0.7 percent transgender applicants.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019