A training model for owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) developed and successfully applied by EMPRETEC-Guyana in communities across the country is to be shared with small business representatives from several countries when UNCTAD/EMPRETEC stages its 2010 International Directors Meeting in Brasilia later this month.
Managing Director of EMPRETEC-Guyana Judy Semple-Joseph has disclosed that following the success of the Venture Out! 2010 entrepreneurial business training programme across Guyana, EMPRETEC-Guyana has been invited to share its key elements with other members of the global EMPRETEC network at the UNCTAD/EMPRETEC International Directors Meeting to be held in Brazil later this month.
Semple-Joseph will be attending the Brasilia meeting in her capacity as head of EMPRETEC-Guyana and will be making the presentation to the meeting regarding the successful implementation of the programme here.
In most developing countries, including Guyana, SEMs account for a large share of registered businesses, account for a significant portion of employment and make a major contribution to countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). UNCTAD’s EMPRETEC programme is specifically designed to infuse small-scale entrepreneurs with skills and attitudes to enable them to become innovative, competitive and, hopefully, global market players.
Undertaken with sponsorship from Republic Bank, EMPRETEC/Guyana’s Venture Out programme comprised a series of practical, interactive workshops designed to help participants acquire what a press release from the organization’s head office described as “the requirements for establishing a smooth running business along with a framework on how to run a business successfully.” The release said that apart from providing participants with the tools through business training, coaching and practical evaluation “to become fully empowered to reach their business goals,” the four-month programme also required them to assess their own business ventures in the context of what Venture Out had taught them. Female entrepreneurs from Regions Two, Four, Six, Nine and Ten participated in the programme.
By being invited to share the content and outcomes of the Venture Out programme with representatives from EMPRETEC chapters in other developing countries, EMPRETEC-Guyana has also won an important opportunity to network with other trainers and small and medium-scale entrepreneurs who will be attending the Brazil conference.
The EMPRETEC programme is part of UNCTAD’s mandate on enhancing productive capacity and international competitiveness for the benefit of economic development, poverty eradication and equal participation of developing countries and transition economies in the world economy.
The name EMPRETEC – the Spanish acronym for emprendedores (entrepreneurs) and tecnología (technology) – was first introduced in Argentina in 1988. Since its inception, the EMPRETEC programme has been initiated in 27 countries, assisting more than 120,000 entrepreneurs through local market-driven EMPRETEC/business support centres.
EMPRETEC’s core product, the Entrepreneurship Training Workshop (ETW), is based on a unique Harvard-originated methodology focused on a behavioural approach to entrepreneurship.
