Preparations are underway for a two-month entrepreneur programme in Bahrain that aims to provide a platform for university graduates to turn their projects into real business.

The first edition of the 'Startup Boot Camp' is being organised by Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (BCCI) Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development and Support Centre and will focus on information and communications technology (ICT) blueprints, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

It starts on December 1 and will feature five stages starting with shortlisting the participants according to their projects and then advancing them to the other stages, which include professional training, coaching and mentoring, facilitating the financing of their projects and finally obtaining a commercial registration (CR).

"We want to help the newcomers by putting them on the right track where they can convert their unique ideas to an actual business that they can make a living from," said BCCI chief executive Nabeel Al Mahmood during a press conference yesterday at the BCCI premises in Sanabis.

"We will first interview those willing to take part and shortlist them to 25, with priority to those who come up with innovative ideas," he said.

"Then comes the empowerment and training stage, which includes sessions in business modelling, project managing, business plans, etc.

"The third stage will feature members from the chamber offering their knowledge and experience to mentor them.

"After these three main stages, we will start calling our networks and corporations that we have links with to convince them to finance these projects and later they can obtain their CR."

SMEs Development and Support Centre counsellor Hussain Ali Janahi said the programme is the first of its kind as it accelerates the steps needed to start a business.

"This is a business accelerator and a platform with a special area for the participants, whereas other programmes have a competition nature and they end by announcing the winners without helping them make use of their projects," he said.

"We use resources and corporations that already exist but we will organise the process and work within a time frame that guarantees the result of them having their own business.

"We chose a special focus for this edition, which is ICT and every edition will have a different highlight as we want to be able to choose the right mentors for them so as to get as much benefit as possible."

Online registration forms will be available on Sunday on www.sme.bh Participants must be unemployed and should have a certificate in ICT. - TradeArabia News Service