How to spark a creative idea with British Council

The award ceremony of winners of “Creative Speak Big Idea Challenge” held in Tashkent.

Past week the award ceremony of winners from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan concluded the final country stage of “Creative Speak Big Idea Challenge” 2019 run, reports Dunyo IA correspondent.

The winners were selected by a panel of national and international judges experienced in enterprise education and creative entrepreneurship.

“Creative Spark” is a five year long initiative that was launched in 2018 and aims to link creative and ambitious students of higher education in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan with the UK’s higher education and creative institutions through funded international partnerships.

The programme focuses on three areas to give young people improved access to international networks, markets and resources: development of partnerships between universities and creative institutions in the UK and their equivalents in programme countries, delivering enterprise skills packages to students, graduates and creative entrepreneurs, ranging from pitching ideas and starting a business, to protecting intellectual property and securing financial support, delivering an English Learning Programme with a range of new digital language learning content.

In the meantime, young people (18-35 year olds) designed competition “Big Idea Challenge” runs within “Creative Spark”. Its participants in affiliated countries had to develop a “startup” and share it with the world through the video presentation. Among thousands of applicants, the jury selected only 63 teams – including nine teams from Uzbekistan. The categories included digital technology, social impact and creative.

Chris Lane, Head of Partnerships at London Met and Hande Diker, “Creative Spark” Manager who were involved in the project said they would meet every Monday for 6 months over the video conference to work on the project.

To make it a reality in Uzbekistan, British Council joined hands with London Metropolitan University, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, Ministry of Innovative Development, Ministry of Public Education, The Arts and Culture Development Foundation with several higher education institutions and public organizations.

Organizers say that the award ceremony is the most memorable stage of 2019 run so far. Out of 27 teams from each present country (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan), the jury selected 3 winning teams in three categories. But it was only one champion per country to travel to London: “Dalatunes” from Kazakhstan, “Oinobook” from Kyrgyzstan and “Business Glossary” from Uzbekistan.

Jamilya Gulyamova, the Deputy Director at British Council Uzbekistan says the future of the project is in hands of participants: “Big Idea Challenge” is about their future; their ability to refine their ideas and bring the social impact back to Uzbekistan”.

TASHKENT, July 22. /Dunyo IA/.