The third edition of the ILO's Sustainable Enterprise Academy provides participants with a unique overview of existing tools and knowledge about sustainable enterprise development.

This year, the ILO's Sustainable Enterprise Academy has a special focus on youth entrepreneurship and strategies for governments and donor agencies to tackle the problem of creating new jobs.

The facilitating team will include leading ILO experts, renowned academics, partner UN organizations like UNIDO and international consultants specialized in entrepreneurship, value chains, enterprise restructuring, business development services, local development, creative industries, women’s entrepreneurship development, and other topics.

The ILO's Sustainable Enterprise Academy is a great networking opportunity for professional working on enterprise development.

It is a multilingual event with courses in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Webpage: http://enterpriseacademy.itcilo.org/en/home

Registrations:  http://enterpriseacademy.itcilo.org/en/how-to-apply

Information: enterprise.academy@itcilo.org

Background Information

The second KAB follow-up workshop was organized to review the performance of the trainers trained in August 2008, discuss the challenges faced in the delivery of KAB and present the new topics of KAB version 2009.

Following the two TOT workshops conducted in August 2008, the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training decided to pilot implement the KAB programme in select vocational and technical institutes in parallel to the existing training curricula entitled business management which was felt inappropriate. Fifty four (54) trainers from vocational and technical training institutes and technical colleges attended the two TOT workshops.

The KAB was implemented by 21 teachers in 21 technical and vocational training institutes in 2008-2009. A total of 1600 students enrolled in the programme. The programme was delivered over a period 96 hours (three sessions per week for 32 weeks) per academic year.

The Workshop Sessions

The workshop was facilitated by Ms. Rania Bikhazi, Samih Jaber and Ahmad Abdulbary the KAB coordinator in Yemen It was conducted at the Mecure Hotel in Sana’a from 8-9/12/2009 from 8:30 in the morning till 16:30 in the afternoon with two coffee breaks and lunch break.

Out of the 21 teachers who piloted the KAB, fourteen teachers attended the workshop. In addition, (5) supervisors from the curriculum and standards departments of the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training attended the workshop

One session was allocated for group work to evaluate the KAB programme by the teachers and provide their comments and feedback following their first year of KAB pilot testing. The session tackled the appropriateness and suitability of the KAB programme content and teaching methodology in addition to the provision of recommendations for the expansion of its implementation.

Two participants presented the groups work in the presence of His Excellency Dr, Ibrahim Hugary- the Minister, Dr.Abdulqader Al Olaby- Deputy of Curricula and Continuous  Education Sector, Dr. Ibtihaj Al Kamal - Deputy of Standards and Quality Sector and other ministry officials.

His Excellency the Minister expressed his satisfaction for the good results highlighted by the teachers and assured the attendees that the Ministry will integrate the KAB programme in the curricula of the technical and vocational training in Yemen provided that the final comprehensive KAB evaluation will confirm the good highlighted results.

The ILO/GCC Sub-Regional Introductory workshop on Know About Business (KAB) for Promoters and Facilitators in the GCC countries took place in Kuwait from the 5th till the 8th of October 2009.

An excerpt of the workshop report is attached.

THE AGENDA FOR THE CONFERENCE IS NOW AVAILABLE. Please see attached documents.

Hundreds of thousands of school leavers, university graduates and graduates of vocational education and training institutes enter the labour market each year and many of them cannot find a job. Preparing youth for self-employment and enterprise development is therefore considered an important strategy in national education efforts and countries are increasingly introducing entrepreneurship education at different levels in the educational system to orient youth to other career options than wage employment.

Against this backcloth, the ILO under the patronage of H. E., Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, first Lady of Egypt, and with financial support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is organising an international conference on entrepreneurship education in Sharm El Sheikh, with a special focus on the Know About Business (KAB) programme, to discuss and share the experiences of these and other efforts with a view to develop better policies and guidelines for the promotion of self-employment and youth entrepreneurship.

The conference is aimed at all policy makers and practitioners involved in the promotion, design and teaching of entrepreneurship education courses in schools, vocational education and training institutions, and higher education from contries of the Middle East and North Africa region and abroad. Governement officials, educators, students and trainees, representatives from students organisations, International Organisations, donors, national and international NGOs, young entrepreneurs association are also invited to participate.

You may find more information on the Conference Flyer by going to "read more" at the bottom of this page.

Registrations have now been closed. We thank you for your interest and come back at a later date for more information on the conference outcomes.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON CONFERENCE PACKAGE:
Please note that the conference package includes the following:

All arrivals on the 4th of May pick up service is included.

All departures on the 7th of May transportation service to the airport is included.

Meet, Assist and transportation from and to the airport is included only on the 4th and on the 7th of May.

Arrival 4th in the evening, dinner at the hotel restaurant (DOES NOT include drinks).

5th of May , breakfast and dinner in the hotel restaurant (DOES NOT include drinks)

6th of May, breakfast  in the hotel restaurant and dinner in the pool area Gala Dinner. (DOES NOT include drinks)

Departure 7th of May, breakfast only at the hotel restaurant (DOES NOT include drinks)

Coffee breaks and lunch are offered at the convention centre on the 5th, 6th and 7th of May 2010.

Any extra order will be paid by the participant on the spot. $105 per night on breakfast and dinner basis in single room and $136 in double room per night. Payment in cash will be required for these rates.

يدخل إلى سوق العمل في الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا كل عام مئات الألوف سواء من خريجي الجامعات والمعاهد العليا، أو خريجي التعليم الفني والتدريب المهني، إضافة إلى عدد كبير من المتسربين من التعليم. وكثيراً منهم لا يستطيعون إيجاد وظيفة أو فرصة عمل. ومن ثم فإن تأهيل الشباب للتأهيل الذاتي وتنمية المؤسسات، تعتبر من الاستراتيجيات الهامة التي تأتى على رأس الجهود التي تبذل لتطوير التعليم الوطني وعليه أخذت الدول تتجه إلى إدخال تعليم ريادة الأعمال بشكل متزايد في مستويات مختلفة من النظام التعليمي لتوجيه الشباب إلى خيارات أخرى غير العمل بأجر .

ولمواجهة هذه التحديات، فقد سعت منظمة العمل الدولية إلى تنظيم مؤتمر دولي حول تعليم ريادة الأعمال في مدينة شرم الشيخ بجمهورية مصر العربية. وسوف يتيح المؤتمر مناقشة وتبادل الخبرات ومراجعة الجهود التي بذلت، وذلك بهدف تطوير سياسات أفضل وإرساء مبادئ توجيهية لتعزيز التشغيل الذاتي وريادة الأعمال لدى الشباب.

هذا المؤتمر موجه إلى جميع واضعي السياسات والمتخصصين المشتركين في تعزيز وتصميم وتعليم ريادة الأعمال في المدارس ومؤسسات التعليم الفني والتدريب المهني، والتعليم العالي ببلدان منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا وخارجها. وعلى وجه الخصوص المسئولين الحكوميين والمعلمين والطلبة والمتدربين، وممثلين منظمات الطلاب، والمنظمات الدولية، والهيئات المانحة، والمنظمات غير الحكومية الوطنية والدولية، وجمعيات رواد الأعمال، كل هؤلاء مدعوون لتبادل المعارف والخبرات.

للتسجيل، يرجى النقر على المكان المخصص لملئ الاستمارة وشكراً.

This article by Robert Nelson was published in the Asian Survey Journal in 1977. This was one of the first articles of its kind that focussed on introducing entrepreneurship into educational systems. The article argues that entrepreneurship education is not the same as business education and that an increased focus on entrepreneurial opportunities in educational systems not only lead to an increase in the number of entrepreneurs over time, but are means to stimulate creativity and innovation that are all necessary to create better communities, better nations and a better world. This article written more than 30 years ago is still relevant and touches at the heart of the debate about the benefits of entrepreneurship education today.  Robert Nelson is also one of the key authors of the Know About Business (KAB) programme of the International Labour Organization.

Pour la première fois, du 30 août au 10 septembre 2010, aura lieu une formation de formateurs principaux du programme Comprendre l’Entreprise (CLE) en français. Cette formation aura lieux au Centre international de l’OIT à Turin (Italie).

Le programme CLE est un programme de formation à l’entreprenariat qui cherche à aider les jeunes, femmes et hommes, à faire connaissance avec le monde des affaires et l’entreprise. Il a été conçu pour les éducateurs des institutions de formation professionnelle et technique publiques et privées et de l’enseignement supérieur.

Après avoir reçu la formation de deux semaines, les participants seront capables de :

•          Enseigner le programme CLE dans des institutions d’éducation et de formation

•          Expliquer les méthodes utilisées pour enseigner le matériel CLE

•          Expliquer comment utiliser le Jeux d’Affaires dans un cour de formation en entreprenariat

•          Expliquer le processus à suivre pour introduire le programme CLE dans le système d’éducation d’une institution.

Cette formation a été conçue pour tous les professionnels travaillant dans la conceptualisation et enseignement de l’entreprenariat dans les écoles, les institutions de formation professionnelle et technique publiques et privées et de l’enseignement supérieur. Il est particulièrement recommandé pour les formateurs de professeurs, les professeurs d’entreprenariat et les spécialistes chargés de conceptualiser des cours en entreprenariat.

Pour s’enregistrer ou avoir plus d’informations veuillez envoyer un courriel à : emld@itcilo.org

TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

How a curriculum addition opens young people’s minds to new ways of working

and earning a livelihood

THE GOOD PRACTICE: Promoting an entrepreneurial culture with a gender perspective within both secondary school and technical vocational training and education curricula to equip young women and men for self-employment and the transition from school to work

Entrepreneurship education for young people in Lao PDR

THE INITIAL CHALLENGE: Moving from a centrally planned economy to the free market, the business culture in Lao People’s Democratic Republic is relatively new and gradually taking shape. Entrepreneurship is not fully appreciated because there are very few role models. This is especially the case for women, because the notion that men are better thinkers and business decision-makers than women is still very strong in Lao PDR.

Entrepreneurship is considered important for any country that is on a new path to economic growth and development. Introducing entrepreneurship into secondary schools and vocational education and training can prepare a new generation of girls and boys for self-employment at a time when formal wage employment is not available to many young jobseekers.

THE RESPONSE: In partnership with the Lao-India Entrepreneurship Development Center (LIEDC), the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion and Development Office (SMEPDO), the International Labour Organization (ILO) introduced its Know About Business (KAB) entrepreneurship curriculum in the Lao educational system.

The KAB curriculum is designed to develop positive attitudes towards enterprise and self-employment among youth. It also stimulates young women and men to become enterprising persons in their communities as well as in their personal careers; and it provides knowledge and ideas on how to take up the challenges in starting and operating a successful enterprise. This is intended to make the transition from school to work easier for young people. It is an important life skill for students at all education levels, whether they become employees or start their own enterprise in the transition from school to work or at some later stage in their adult life.

The package was initially developed by the ILO in 1996 and has been introduced to 50 countries. The curriculum addresses terminology from the world of business; how to set up and operate a business (setting priorities, managing people, keeping records and getting a business license); and how to take calculated risks, be a decision maker and find innovative solutions to problems that occur in life and in business.

The 120-hour KAB curriculum was a timely and relevant response to the Government’s 2004 Decree on the Promotion and Development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, which states that “The MOE shall coordinate with SMEPDO in the development of entrepreneurial training curricula and incorporating them into the educational system.”

The programme also accommodated the Government’s policy emphasis on the development of the Lao education system for 2006–2020, which includes reference to the introduction of business training in the curriculum for upper secondary schools.

THE PROCESS: The ILO and the LIEDC organised a workshop in mid 2005 for education policy-makers, educational institute administrators and officers from non-government organizations and development agencies to introduce the concept, approach and methodology of the KAB curriculum which had been translated into Lao. The response was positive, but acceptance into an already overloaded curriculum would require a long process, including an assessment by the Research Institute for Educational Sciences of the MOE.

The partners then arranged similar workshops and meetings with officials from the Ministry of Education and policy-makers to plan the piloting of the curriculum in four provinces (Vientiane, Savannakhet, Khammouane and Champasak).  A two-week workshop later in 2005 in Vientiane prepared 26 teachers from 11 schools to test the KAB entrepreneurship curriculum during the next school year. The pilot included four vocational training and education schools, four upper secondary schools, one non-formal skill development school and one vocational education development centre. A refresher course with the teachers took place four months later, which consolidated learning and impact to give the teachers a more conceptual understanding, address their problems and respond to issues related to inclusion of the course in the education system.

The first government evaluation of this piloted experience proved favourable. After making some revisions based on that evaluation, the ILO, through its project on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (ILO-WEDGE), and the LIEDC took the KAB curriculum for a second test run in private upper secondary schools in eight provinces in late 2007. At the same time, the Research Institute for Educational Sciences of the MOE did another assessment of the KAB curriculum and found it suitable for the upper secondary schools. This plus the success of the pilots led to the Department of Higher and Technical Education in 2008 being eager to integrate the KAB curriculum into vocational education and training institutions. The teachers’ training institute also accepted it in its training curriculum.

During the first refresher course, teachers noted that although they liked the curriculum, one year was too short a time period to master the teaching and adequately cover the 120-hours of instruction. They managed to complete the course by giving extra time during holidays or after school hours. Students, they said, liked the participatory learning style and the content. They did ask for more case studies of real Lao business situations and business people’s experiences. The teachers were encouraged to promote business activity ideas among students that were as innovative as possible.

To support ongoing learning, the LIEDC trainers visited all the schools participating in the pilot project to observe the curriculum in practice and to help teachers with any difficulties they might experience. Because many teachers reported they felt ill-equipped to teach entrepreneurship, the LIEDC organised  enterprise visits for them to speak directly with owners and managers about their daily experiences in managing and operating an enterprise.

Following requests from MOE, the ILO agreed to support another round of teachers’ training in six provinces. In preparation for this, the ILO–WEDGE project in Bangkok carried out a gender review of the curriculum to include a stronger gender perspective in the training. At the same time, LIEDC and ILO–WEDGE arranged information meetings for representatives of public and private upper secondary schools in the targeted provinces and identified schools that were interested to participate.

Following those meetings, the partners conducted a two-week training of trainers (TOT) workshop in July 2009 for 25 teachers (9 of them women) from 15 new schools in five provinces.  Four teachers from the Teachers College / National University also joined the TOT so that they in turn can teach future teachers regarding the KAB curriculum. The TOT was facilitated by two ILO-accredited KAB International Key Facilitators and co-facilitated by two national trainers from LIEDC and the WEDGE National Project Coordinator.

The LIEDC project will regularly monitor, coach, and provide technical support to the teachers and the trainers who have trained them (so-called “master trainers”) throughout the academic year 2009/10. A refresher training workshop will be organised halfway through the roll-out for the school teachers to discuss their experiences and challenges in teaching the new entrepreneurship subject, and to review the modules that will be introduced during the next academic year.

An evaluation is planned for the end of the 2009/10 academic year. The findings of the refresher workshop and the evaluation will be presented to the MOE as required for its decision on whether or not to mainstream KAB into the upper secondary school curriculum. The existing curriculum for upper secondary schools is currently under review. A revised curriculum will be introduced in 2010 and if the current pilot test is positively assessed then KAB will be integrated as a subject into the curriculum of upper secondary schools.

OUTCOMES:

¨ The international KAB curriculum is translated into the Lao language and adapted so that it is suitable to the local context and can be used to deliver the 120-hour KAB course.

¨ The KAB entrepreneurship curriculum has been integrated into the school curriculum in 12 secondary and vocational training schools (public and private) since 2006. The typical age group of students is 15–18.

¨ As of 2009, more than 23,000 students have participated in the KAB course.

ONGOING CHALLENGES:

¨ Public resources for teachers’ training and for the printing of high quality teaching materials and aids are scarce, thus good-quality delivery of this course (and others) cannot be guaranteed without some sort of external assistance in the short term.

¨ In the KAB entrepreneurship course, group work, innovative games and exercises are at the heart of the participatory training methodology along with a process of inquiry. This is how students are encouraged to be responsible for their own learning. In Lao PDR, classes often consist of 60 students or more, and applying the participatory KAB teaching methodology can be a challenge for teachers who as a result may resort to an out-dated lecture-style teaching.

¨ Teachers may not always have enough background in gender-equality promotion to be able to encourage both girls and boys to develop an enterprising mind-set.

¨ While introducing KAB entrepreneurship education in the schools is an important step, the challenge is to integrate entrepreneurship education into higher education and teacher education curricula. Universities and teachers colleges must integrate KAB in their curricula to ensure that high quality entrepreneurship training is provided at all levels of the education and training system.

LESSONS LEARNED:

¨ Teachers and students enjoy the KAB entrepreneurship subject and have fun teaching and learning about a new subject. Teachers find inspiration in participatory methodologies, which they can use in other subjects, and when the students have fun the learning outcomes are improved

¨ Teachers may reproduce certain stereotypes that reinforce the false idea that men are better at business because they are natural risk-takers and decision-makers. These stereotypes need to be dealt with both in the curriculum itself but also in the learning process of the KAB course. The risk-taking game played during the KAB course actually often shows that the female students are more realistic and more calculated risk-takers than the male students

¨ Entrepreneurship education must integrate gender issues to awaken within young people an excitement for entrepreneurship and respect for gender equality. Boys and young men may never have had any exposure to gender issues and using entrepreneurship games and exercises illustrates that what one sex can do, their class mates of the other sex can do just as well.