Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC), one of the largest and leading mixed-use business incubators in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, founded by Qatar Development Bank (QDB), has launched Qatar’s first-of-its-kind Lean Coach Program, designed to develop the next generation of certified startup coaches.
The incubator explained in a statement that the launch of the third wave of the program comes after receiving hundreds of applications, as 46 coaches were selected, who met the required criteria to enter the program, which targets aspiring coaches from various fields of business and academia, and aims to build their capacities and equip them with the latest knowledge towards empowering Qatar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and guiding the next success stories in the country.
The statement pointed out that the training period, which began in October, will last for 11 weeks, and includes a range of technical and practical axes, and any mentor wishing to obtain a certificate of accreditation must complete the three basic stages of virtual training sessions, virtual mentoring sessions, and practical counseling sessions.
The incubator stated that the program offers trainees the unique opportunity to follow the QBIC teams mentoring sessions for entrepreneurs in the Lean Startup Program, which is being conducted in parallel with this program, and directly train the mentored startups towards the final weeks of the program, making the coaches experience throughout the program, a practical and impactful one. The top five coaches will then have the chance to train startups in the 15th wave of the Lean Startup Program for an entire year, the incubator added.
The Lean Coach Program lies at the heart of QBICs and QDBs mission to develop the country’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, where empowering and qualifying mentors is seen as a key step in building the capacity of aspiring entrepreneurs that will ultimately diversify the economy, localize businesses, and realize the Qatar National Vision 2030.
(Various sources including QNA, Qatar Tribune based inputs)
