Thirty young, aspiring entrepreneurs will get training under Innovate Bhutan (iBhutan) for seven weeks in social entrepreneurship under the Learn 2 Launch (L2L) programme. The idea is to promote the social entrepreneurship concept in Bhutan with the idea to create a future social business leaders.

The programme, which was launched this week by the Youth Development Fund (YDF) in collaboration with UNICEF to promote social entrepreneurship, will combine commercial and social issues to improve the lives of those connected to the cause, according to Kuenselonline.

iBhutan is a centre for social and business innovations founded by YDF in partnership with the Institute for Learning Solutions in October last year.

Kinley Tenzin, who is the YDF’s chief of social enterprise, said that the L2L programme aims to impart business, social and technological skills to young and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The programme will have experts in social entrepreneurship, design thinking, finance, marketing and communication, strategy and value creation, and outcome measures.

“We’ll teach them how to identify the problems and then develop their skills to build a business around the problem,” he said.

The programme provides avenues for young entrepreneurs to test their ideas and launch them later.

Two business ideas will be selected and awarded Nu 200,000 each at the end of the programme.

Kesang Om, founder of the implementing partner, Institute for Learning Solutions, said that the programme aimed to offer participants insights into what sustainability implies and what a profitable business entails.

She said that iBhutan created a holistic mentor-mentee programme to guide young entrepreneurs.

Aspiring entrepreneurs aged between 18 to 30 years can participate in the programme, which will start at the end of this month.