(MENAFN- AzerNews) Access to skills for the future – innovation, technology,
digital and entrepreneurship Contribution to a startup ecosystem in the
country
bp on behalf of its co-venturers in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli,
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline
projects – TPAO, SOCAR, SGC, LUKOIL, NICO, MOL, Equinor, INPEX,
ExxonMobil, ITOCHU, Eni, TotalEnergies, ONGCVidesh - today held a
final event to recognize the best startup ideas from participants
in an educational project aimed to develop skills for the future
and promote innovation.
Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, bp's vice president for the Caspian
region, communications, and external affairs, said:“We are pleased
to bring this important project to a final close and are proud that
the final event of the project“Skills for the Future” took place
under the motto of the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijan's
national leader Heydar Aliyev. The project had a special focus on
developing the skills and capabilities that will help the younger
generation take this great man's vision and ideas into the
future.
“The event was a great opportunity for the participants to
present their excellent ideas and projects. Also, it was
encouraging to see the students' hard work, one team collaboration
and new skills – all required for them to build their own and the
country's future. In a wider sense, the project is in line with the
country's goals to expand and enhance the infrastructure and
support mechanisms for startups.”
The project, which started in June last year, focused on
promoting an innovative and entrepreneurial environment in 13 local
universities in Baku, Ganja and Mingachevir.
The project scope consisted of two main programmes - mentoring
and incubation. The mentoring element included a six-month training
programme for 130 selected university teachers. It aimed to train
the participants to become effective mentors to help students
develop startup and entrepreneurial skills.
This was followed by an extensive incubation programme which
covered 728 students – from a pool of 2,256 applicants. This
programme enabled the participants to progress their initial
startup ideas into final presentable projects based on the
entrepreneurship, creative and other critical skills they had
learned.
A“Pitch Day” event was held today to hear project presentations
from 19 successful finalists selected from among 181 teams. At the
conclusion, three best startup teams and their mentors received
prizes at the jury's decision.
The project was implemented by Innovations Centre LLC – a local
educational organisation.
The duration of the project was one year (June 2022 – June 2023)
with a total value of around 82,000 AZN ($48,235).
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