Description
On this particular brief paper account facilitating youth entrepreneurship part i an analysis of awareness and promotion.
SEED WORKING PAPER No. 59
Series on Youth and Entrepreneurship
Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship
Part I
An analysis of awareness and promotion programmes
in formal and non-formal education
by
Klaus Haftendorn
Carmela Salzano
InFocus Programme on Boosting Employment
through Small EnterprisE Development
Job Creation and Enterprise Department
International Labour Office · Geneva
Copyright © International Labour Organization 2003
First published 2003
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ILO
Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship, Part I: An analysis of awareness and promotion programmes in formal and non-formal education.
Geneva, International Labour Office, 2003
ISBN 92-2-115298-7
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iii
Foreword
Five hundred million young people will enter the workforce within the next decade.
Today, 66 million young people are unemployed and an even higher number are
underemployed. Overall, the unemployment rate for young people is two to three times higher
than for adults.
A generation without the hope of a stable job is a burden for the whole of society.
Poor employment in the early stages of a young person’s career can harm job prospects for
life. The economic investment of governments in education and training will be wasted if
young people do not move into productive jobs that enable them to pay taxes and support
public services.
Having reduced youth unemployment to half by 2015 is one of the goals that Heads of
State of all member countries of the United Nations adopted in the Millennium Declaration.
The ILO is exploring ways to increase youth employment which will help end the vicious
cycle of poverty and social exclusion. ILO member states, employers’ and workers’
organizations are being made aware of youth employment issues, which helps them formulate
effective policies and programmes. The ILO also documents innovative ways to keep young
people from dropping out of education so they can enter the world of work with better
training and higher-paid skills. The ILO’s Know About Business (KAB) training package is
offered at vocational and technical training institutions. It is a comprehensive set of materials
on entrepreneurship education. KAB encourages young people to consider self-employment
as a career. By using the package, schools can help trainees who aspire to entrepreneurship to
learn to face some of the challenges of managing a small business.
The ILO is acting as the Secretariat of the Youth Employment Network (YEN) set up
by the Secretary-General of the UN. A panel of 12 civil society and industrial leaders is
responsible for the formulation of recommendations on ways to reduce youth unemployment.
These focus on four key areas: Employment creation, Entrepreneurship, Employability and
Equal opportunities – the four “E”s. As a contribution to the work of the panel, IFP/SEED
established a research series entitled “Youth and Entrepreneurship”, led by Klaus Haftendorn
of IFP/SEED.
The present Working Paper – the first in the series – addresses education for
entrepreneurship. It takes up one of the recommendations of the panel’s working group on
Entrepreneurship, stipulating that “the education system must recognize the need for
developing the skills and attitudes that make up an entrepreneurial mindset such as lateral
thinking, questioning, independence and self-reliance. This education should continue through
vocational training, business incubation and the start-up phase for young entrepreneurs.”
The review presented in Part I of this paper analyses awareness and promotion
programmes in formal and non-formal education from around the world. Part II, published
separately, contains an extensive directory with short descriptions of more than 100 current
and recently completed programmes for entrepreneurship education. Together, they constitute
a rich source of information for use by planners and decision makers on youth employment
and education policies. In addition, the wealth of details and references on the implementation
of such policies may inspire and guide the many practitioners of youth training and job
creation programmes.
iv
Particular thanks is given to the co-author of this study, Ms. Carmela Salzano who
carried out the main part of the research work of identifying and analysing the programmes.
Acknowledgement is due to Takafumi Ueda and Jim Tanburn of IFP/SEED for their
constructive comments on the draft and to Geraldeen Fitzgerald and Barbara Cooper for their
careful editing. Finally, the publication of this paper would not have been possible without the
consistent and meticulous logistical and editorial support of Christine Vuilleumier.
Kees van der Ree
Director (a.i.)
InFocus Programme on Boosting Employment
through Small Enterprise Development
v
Abbreviations
AIDS acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
AIMS Assessment of the Impact of Microfinance Services
APCE Agence pour la Création d’Entreprises
ATSIC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
BDS Business development services
BENE Business Educators Network for Entrepreneurship
BYST Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (India)
CADEC Catholic Development Commission
CECTEC Centro de Educación, Capacitación y Tecnologia
CEED Centre for Education and Enterprise Development
CEFE Competency-based Economies through Formation of Enterprises
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
CIDE Centre for Educational Research and Development
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
CTEC Certified Technical Education Centre
CYCI Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative
CYP Commonwealth Youth Program
DAPP Drug Abuse and Prevention Programme
DAPPA Drug Abuse Prevention Programme in Asia
DFID Department for International Development, United Kingdom
DIEPES Distance education programme (Finland)
DUBS Durham University Business School
EDC Entrepreneurship Development Centre
ECJC Educación y Capacitación de Jóvenes Campesinos (Education and
Training for Rural Youth)
EDI-I Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
EEP Entrepreneurship Education Programme
EMPRETEC Emprendedores
technologia
ESDP Entrepreneurial Skills Development Programme
ETF European Training Foundation
EU European Union
FEBDEV Foundation for Entrepreneurial and Business Development
FEED Forum on Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development
FRG Federal Republic of Germany
GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
GGLS Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings
GPYD Global Partnership for Youth Development
GTZ Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
HIV human immunodeficiency virus
HMG/N His Majesty’s Government of Nepal
IAWGYD Inter-American Working Group on Youth Development
IAYD Integrated Approach to Youth Development
ICTs Information and communication technologies
IDRC International Development Research Centre
ILC International Labour Conference
ILO International Labour Organization
ITE Institute of Technical Education
IUT Institut Universitaire de Technologie
IYB Improve Your Business
IYF International Youth Foundation
JEP Joint Enrichment Project
vi
KAB Know About Business
K-MAP Kenya Management Assistance Programme
KYTEC Kenya Youth Training and Employment Creation Project
LMI Labour market information
MSE Micro and Small Enterprise
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NHO Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry
NIC Newly industrializing countries
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
PAAZ Potential Agribusiness Association of Zambia
PECs Personal entrepreneurial competencies
PHARE EU assistance programme for Central and Eastern Europe
POs Partner Organizations
RCED Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development
RIT Rajamangala Institute of Technology
RSTP Refugee and Sudanese Training Programme
SACBC South African Catholic Bishops Conference
SACC South African Council of Churches
SBPP Small Business Promotion Project
SDSR Skills Development for Self-Reliance
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
SIYB Start and Improve Your Business
SME Small and Medium Enterprise
STEP-IN Integrated Skills Training for Employment Promotion
SYB Start Your Business
TACIS EU assistance programme for CIS
TEA Total Entrepreneurial Activity
TEDI The Entrepreneurial Development Institute
TRYSEM Training for Rural Youth for Self Employment
TOT Training-of-Trainers
TVET Technical and vocational education and training systems
UA University of Arizona
UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization
UP ISSI University of the Philippines, Institute for Small-Scale Industries
USAID United States Agency for International Development
YBI Youth Business International
YEN Youth Employment Network
YES The Golden Vale Young Entrepreneurs Scheme
YOP Youth Outreach Programme
YSA Youth Service America
YTE Youth Tech Entrepreneurs
ZNFU Zambia National Farmers Union
vii
Table of contents
Foreword ...................................................................................................................................iii
Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. v
Introduction............................................................................................................................... ix
Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. xi
1. Socio-economic context affecting youth entrepreneurship................................................ 1
1.1 Cultural influence on entrepreneurship...................................................................... 1
1.2 Relationship between cultural patterns and entrepreneurship.................................... 3
1.3 Labour market and employment situation of youth ................................................... 5
1.4 Socio-economic context by category of countries ..................................................... 6
1.4.1 Industrialized countries................................................................................... 6
1.4.2 Transition countries ........................................................................................ 9
1.4.3 Developing countries .................................................................................... 10
1.4.4 Other countries.............................................................................................. 11
2. Promoting youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation: Approaches and
general findings................................................................................................................ 12
2.1 National government policy..................................................................................... 13
2.2 Teacher training and professional development....................................................... 14
2.3 Resource materials and training packages ............................................................... 15
2.4 Partnership arrangements ......................................................................................... 16
2.5 Most common programme features.......................................................................... 20
3. Findings at different levels of education.......................................................................... 21
3.1 Secondary level ........................................................................................................ 21
3.1.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 21
3.1.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 22
3.1.3 Transition and developing countries............................................................. 22
3.2 Technical and vocational education......................................................................... 22
3.2.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 22
3.2.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 23
3.2.3 Transition countries ...................................................................................... 24
3.2.4 Developing countries .................................................................................... 24
3.3 University level ........................................................................................................ 25
3.3.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 25
3.3.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 26
3.3.3 Transition countries ...................................................................................... 27
3.3.4 Developing countries .................................................................................... 27
3.4 Post formal education programmes.......................................................................... 28
3.4.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 28
3.4.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 29
3.4.3 Transition countries ...................................................................................... 29
3.4.4 Developing countries .................................................................................... 30
3.5 Youth programmes for specific target groups.......................................................... 31
3.5.1 At-risk and marginalized youth .................................................................... 31
3.5.2 Rural areas .................................................................................................... 32
3.5.3 Information and communication technologies (ICTs).................................. 34
3.5.4 Environment and community........................................................................ 36
3.5.5 Women.......................................................................................................... 37
viii
3.5.6 Vulnerability due to drug abuse or sexually transmitted diseases ................ 37
3.5.7 Religious/indigenous/minority groups.......................................................... 38
3.5.8 Un- and under-employed diploma holders ................................................... 38
3.5.9 Children in post-crisis situations................................................................... 38
4. Impact and potential for replication ................................................................................. 40
4.1 Impact of enterprise education................................................................................. 40
4.2 Potential for replication............................................................................................ 45
5. Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 54
5.1 Wider policy environment for youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation....... 54
5.2 Integrating entrepreneurship education into the classroom...................................... 55
5.3 Teacher training........................................................................................................ 58
5.4 Follow-up activities.................................................................................................. 58
5.5 Equality of opportunity ............................................................................................ 60
5.6 Exploiting opportunities in the ICT sector............................................................... 60
5.7 Financing.................................................................................................................. 60
5.8 Outreach ................................................................................................................... 61
6. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 62
References ................................................................................................................................ 63
Further reading......................................................................................................................... 64
Tables
Table 1.1: Total Entrepreneurial Activities (TEA) in selected countries in 2002..................... 3
Figures
Figure 1.1: How cultural characteristics influence entrepreneurship........................................ 4
Figure 1.2: Labour market movements, entrances and exists ................................................... 6
Figure 1.3: Youth and overall unemployment rates of OECD countries, 2002........................ 8
ix
Introduction
“More than 1 billion people today are between 15 and 25 years of age and nearly 40
per cent of the world’s population is below the age of 20. Eighty-five per cent of these young
people live in developing countries where many are especially vulnerable to extreme poverty.
The ILO estimates that around 74 million young women and men are unemployed throughout
the world, accounting for 41 per cent of all 180 million unemployed
1
persons globally. These
figures do not take into consideration worldwide underemployed (estimated at 310 million).
Many more young people are working long hours for low pay, struggling to eke out a living in
the informal economy. An estimated 59 million young people between 15 and 17 years old
are engaged in hazardous forms of work. Young people actively seeking to participate in the
world of work are two to three times more likely than older generations to find themselves
unemployed.”
2
The Fight against Youth Unemployment is part of the Millennium Goals set by the
Heads of State and Governments who met at the Millennium Summit. A Youth Employment
Network (YEN) was initiated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in association
with the World Bank and the International Labour Organization. The ILO acts as the
Secretariat for YEN.
Questions related to youth employment are treated in a number of ILO Conventions
and Recommendations. Following up on the Millennium Summit, the ILO has strengthened
its activities on policy recommendation programmes and tools for its member countries that
are targeting the reduction of youth unemployment.
Self-employment and micro and small enterprise creation are routes that young people
can actively explore to forge their futures. Enterprises are the places where the jobs are.
Promoting a positive enterprise culture is also a way to facilitate youth employment.
The present paper is the first part of an empirical research project on the effects of
awareness-raising programmes and their impact on promoting self-employment and
entrepreneurship as career options for young people entering the labour market.
The project objective is the development of recommendations for a comprehensive
framework and proven programmes for awareness-raising and entrepreneurship promotion
with impact on the reduction of youth unemployment through self-employment and enterprise
creation.
The research started with a mapping exercise to identify programmes implemented by
governments, employers’ organizations, craft guilds, workers’ organizations, international
donors, NGOs and other civil society associations to facilitate the transition from school and
higher education into self-employment and entrepreneurship, through a variety of modalities
including:
• formal education, university, technical high schools, commercial schools,
vocational training
• promotion of unemployed diploma-holders for self-employment and enterprise
creation
1
According to the ILO definition, an “unemployed person is without work but makes him/herself available for
employment and has worked less than one hour in a reference week”.
2
ILO Governing Body document GB.286/ESP/5 Context of Youth Employment.
x
• achievement motivation programmes for identification of potential entrepreneurs
• entrepreneurship training programmes for youth
• coaching programmes through senior managers and entrepreneurs
• training companies
• business activities run by young people and linked to schools, vocational
training centres and universities
• start-up funding programmes and micro-finance schemes
• youth chamber of entrepreneurs, awards for youth entrepreneurs
• programmes targeting youth entrepreneurship in the informal economy.
The paper presents the results of the mapping exercise with an analysis of the
programmes and first conclusions for replication.
All programmes identified throughout this mapping exercise are documented in a
separate Directory attached to the present paper. This Directory is also available online on the
IFP/SEED’s web page and is frequently updated.
xi
Executive Summary
The world’s different nations view entrepreneurial activities differently, in accordance
with their prevailing culture towards entrepreneurship. Promoting a positive attitude to
entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming the policy of governments whose objective is to
generate more employment through enterprise creation. In this context, youth
entrepreneurship programmes are promoted in schools and communities across the world and
on the Internet. Many examples of enterprise and entrepreneurship education programmes can
be found within national education systems at secondary, vocational, tertiary and university
levels. Programmes have also evolved within the informal economy targeting potential young
entrepreneurs, unemployed, out-of-school or at-risk youth.
Interventions have been designed and implemented by a range of providers, including
public agencies, inter-governmental and bilateral technical assistance partners, the private
sector and non-governmental organizations in a variety of settings. In developed countries,
emphasis is on activities that will nurture the skills and creativity of youth with the potential
to set up their own businesses and, at the same time, make them more employable in formal
labour markets. In developing and transition countries, there is also a growing recognition of
the enormous importance and potential of the informal economy to provide employment and
income-generation opportunities. Training is being reformed to facilitate the insertion of
youth into local economic activities through small enterprises in the informal economy.
Secondary level
At secondary level, many interventions are designed to impart a spirit of
entrepreneurship and teach business concepts through team-based, experiential learning.
Entrepreneurship and enterprise can be integrated throughout the curriculum, as an optional
subject or as an after-school activity. Activities in the classroom are based on managing a
project and are often presented through the simulation of how an entrepreneur operates when
setting up and running a small business, as distinct from operating in a large company where
individual roles and responsibilities are clearly designated. Tools and resources used depend
on country context, but generally include group and one-to-one mentoring with volunteers
from the business and not-for-profit community, work placements, business simulation
games, entrepreneurship competitions, etc. In addition, students can participate in national
and international networks of simulation or practice-firms that have been created in other
schools and thus acquire global economic knowledge. In some cases, students use technology
as applied in business, including the use of the Internet for global transactions and
communications.
In industrialized countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, there are
numerous examples of enterprise education at secondary level. Curriculum guidelines,
materials and resources for enterprise programmes and interventions are at a fairly advanced
level, relying on specially designed supplementary course materials, multimedia and Internet.
These are either designed or supplied by national education systems (often the case in Europe)
or are purchased from not-for-profits specializing in enterprise education (as is often the case
in the United States). The research identified fewer examples in developing and transition
countries, where education systems are overwhelmed by problems of implementing proposed
reforms, scant resources, lack of materials and overcrowding.
xii
Technical and vocational education
Many countries are reforming their technical and vocational education and training
systems (TVET) as part of efforts to reorient national training systems towards new areas of
growth in national economies. TVET is becoming more targeted towards the needs of the
business community with a less rigid emphasis on training for waged employment.
In the area of enterprise education, students obtain direct experience in applying their
technical knowledge in a commercial environment, or participate in creating and developing a
real company that markets its own products.
Reforms in developing and transition countries are taking place with the assistance of
inter-governmental and bilateral technical assistance partners. Private sector firms also
occasionally supply curriculum guidelines and materials, or subsidize courses as part of a
particular sponsorship programme. In some countries, there are even examples of training
offered by large companies to non-employees.
University level
Universities around the world supply highly skilled manpower to the public sector,
commerce and industry. Within the faculty of business, or independently, several universities
in North America and Europe, as well as further afield, now offer entrepreneurship courses at
undergraduate and graduate levels. Many have established Centres for Entrepreneurship to
engage in training, research and development, consultancy and information dissemination and
provide follow-up services for students.
In recent years, universities have developed closer linkages with government and
industry to new growth areas and to promote technology and innovation. Entrepreneurship
education is a natural extension of this trend and universities are engaging in the job of not
only training potential and existing entrepreneurs, but raising awareness about the importance
of entrepreneurship throughout the university community at national and international levels.
For example, the Scottish Institute for Enterprise works with Scottish universities to enhance,
encourage and develop entrepreneurship education and to promote an enterprise culture that is
supportive of technology entrepreneurship, leading to a greater number of business start-ups
emerging from Scottish universities into the commercial marketplace.
Non-formal education
Programmes targeting the informal economy recognize that many children – for
social, economic or cultural reasons – do not make it through the school system or else come
out of it lacking the skills required in the formal labour market. In developing countries in
particular, where state welfare systems are non-existent, many children enter straight into
low-wage exploitative work or start their own subsistence-level activities in the informal
sector. Worse, they become prey to drugs, disease, sex work, etc.
Non-formal programmes by definition are implemented outside of any established or
structured formal system of learning. A diverse range of support is available to young people
either to train as artisans and/or become self-employed in the informal sector. Interventions
range from the provision of credit and mentoring, counselling support, outreach, awards and
competitions, trainers of trainers, etc. through a variety of partners and modalities. Most
methods try to integrate the natural learning processes and assets of youth living in difficult
circumstances and help them to develop small businesses, avoid drugs and crime, sharpen
xiii
their academic skills and form positive attitudes about themselves and their communities, as
well as bolstering the self-confidence and leadership skills required in the workplace.
Some of the programmes have evolved a sectoral focus (e.g. new technologies, e-
commerce) or are offered as part of a livelihoods or life skills package (e.g. HIV/AIDS
prevention, drug rehabilitation or adolescent reproductive health), particularly in the
developing world. Some programmes also specifically target different population groups,
such as minority or indigenous groups, young girls and women or else have a geographic
focus, i.e. rural areas or urban slum dwellings.
In developed countries, programmes are implemented at centre facilities, public
schools, after-school programmes at community-based organizations and intensive summer
business camps. They often rely on support of local business and community development
through sponsorship of programmes and active involvement of voluntary mentors.
In developing and transition countries, the design and implementation of interventions
takes place within a community development or poverty reduction framework and as a
collaborative effort between United Nations agencies, bilateral technical assistance, partners
with external funding (whether from NGOs, bilateral or multilateral agencies), working
directly or indirectly (either through funding local NGOs or through direct funding) to
encourage the development of small-scale industries.
Common features
In spite of the broad differences in economic, social and cultural contexts for
entrepreneurship and enterprise education across regions and countries, there are nevertheless
some similarities in the way that these programmes at different levels of education have been
conceived and are delivered. All the projects and programmes suggest, to varying degrees,
that the key to promoting entrepreneurial initiative is in engaging the imagination of students,
that is, in assisting them to think of developing their own business ideas, by showing them, at
least in part, what it could be like to establish and run their own businesses.
Most programmes tend to combine classroom-based instruction with mentoring,
guidance and counselling, practical experience and a menu of support that is adapted to the
socio-economic circumstances of the participants and is flexible enough to evolve as their
needs and priorities change. In North America, not-for-profits specializing in enterprise and
entrepreneurship education are now servicing programmes in both the formal and non-formal
sectors. In the developing world, tool kits and methodologies such as KAB and SIYB from
ILO, CEFE from GTZ, the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative and Street Kids
International, to name a few, have been developed and replicated widely.
A common theme running through entrepreneurship and enterprise education
programmes, irrespective of socio-economic context, is that they are often delivered within
the framework of partnership arrangements
3
and coalitions at both national and international
levels. The rise in popularity of public/private sector partnership arrangements within the
formal sector is often primarily to facilitate learning and promote sustainability within the
framework of a coherent plan for local economic development. In Western countries, they
often take the form of strengthened cooperation between education and training authorities
3
Here, partnership means arrangements where governments, the international community, businesses and
schools commit through mutual beneficial activities to give students greater insights into questions related to the
world of work and business and to prepare them for self-employment.
xiv
and business associations and enterprise boards. The Golden Vale Young Entrepreneurs
Scheme Awards (YES) in Ireland, for example, is carried out in association with City and
County Enterprise Boards throughout the country.
In developing countries, strategic partnerships are formed to enable the Centre for
Education and Enterprise Development (South Africa) to deliver a holistic and integrated
programme to its target group. The private sector, for example Shell LiveWire in Singapore,
runs an outreach campaign to ensure that potential entrepreneurs outside the student
population are able to participate in workshops, an awards scheme and a mentoring
programme.
Impact
Ultimately the outcomes of these programmes are intended not only to stimulate
economic growth opportunities in line with new market realities, but also to deal with the
increasing problems facing under-employed and unemployed youth in lagging regions of
developed countries and developing and transition countries in general. Such programmes are
seen as a fundamental component of national strategies to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities
that young people face. Preventive measures are needed that promote and facilitate the social
and economic integration of at-risk youth into society in urban and rural communities.
However, it is difficult to get a clear measure of the impact of programmes towards
entrepreneurship and self-employment. At secondary level, most programmes only last for a
one-year period, while at vocational, university and non-formal levels, the general programme
cycle is 2-3 years. But the effects are only generally felt after a period of 5-10 years, as most
young people who wish to go into business usually begin with a period of waged
employment. Unfortunately, there are few tracer studies available for both formal and
informal sectors, i.e. tracing graduates of enterprise education and self-employment
programmes to see whether they have become business owners or gone into self-employment.
Added to this, the measurement of entrepreneurial skills is inherently difficult. Perhaps more
importantly, it is extremely difficult to isolate the impact of a particular intervention without
considering the interaction among the different social, cultural and economic influences on
entrepreneurial behaviour in any given regional or country context.
We can measure impact in terms of numbers of young people trained or loans
disbursed, and even numbers of new businesses created within the immediate follow-up
period. However, again, there are few tracer studies to see how many of these businesses
survive after the critical three-year period. Beyond quantifiable indicators, however, the
success of youth entrepreneurship interventions can also be measured in terms of impact on
government policy and the community. In India, for example, the encouraging results of the
(BYST) programme led to a decision by the national government to permit all banks to give
loans worth Rs. 0.5 million to start-up businesses without collateral and security. Some
programmes, such as the Barefoot College in India, combine targeted assistance to poverty
issues with economic empowerment for self-reliance, so as to have an all-round development
of the community.
Measuring the success of entrepreneurship and enterprise education programmes, as
well as programmes towards self-employment, is nevertheless a major challenge. It is clear
that different programmes are likely to succeed where the government, at local and national
levels, is already providing broad-based support to the creation of SMEs within the
framework of national enterprise policy, local stakeholders are engaged in policy dialogue,
xv
market-based business support institutions and legal frameworks are evolved and youth as a
population group are receiving targeted assistance through national policy frameworks. In
Italy, for example, the Marco Polo project implemented in secondary schools in Padova,
benefits from the tri-sector partnership that already sustains small business clusters in Emilia
Romagna. Here, young people with entrepreneurial initiative are more likely to make a
seamless transition from business simulation into the real economy. Without an enabling
environment, interventions can only have a short-term effect and there is little chance of
young entrepreneurs growing and surviving outside of the programme framework.
Best practices and model programmes of youth development are being shared through
conferences, audio-visual materials, publications, television programming, press articles,
newsletters, Internet web sites and the creation of project-specific databases. This document is
a first step towards identifying the ways in which countries are beginning to overcome the
problems facing youth in the economic and social spheres and developing guidelines for
youth entrepreneurship programmes.
1
1. Socio-economic context affecting youth entrepreneurship
1.1 Cultural influence on entrepreneurship
On 17 June 1998 in Geneva, the International Labour Conference adopted
Recommendation No. 189 concerning the General Conditions to Stimulate Job Creation in
Small and Medium-seized Enterprises. An important issue of the Recommendation is
recognition by the member States of the ILO present in the ILC of the importance of social
and cultural influences on entrepreneurship and the formation of new enterprises.
Recent research tries to ascertain how the national cultural attitude influences the
entrepreneurial activities of the population of a country or a region.
Cultural standards are determinant for a national culture. They are understood as all
kinds of recognition, thinking, values and activities that the majority of members belonging to
the same culture considers as normal, natural, typical and binding. Behaviour is controlled on
the basis of recognized cultural standards. The individual form and the group-specific form of
cultural standards differ within a certain range. Central cultural standards in one culture can
be completely missing in another culture or only have peripheral meanings or fundamental
different functions.
4
Entrepreneurship is understood in a wide social, cultural and economic context, as
well as being innovative at home, school, leisure and at work. Entrepreneurship involves life
attitudes, including the readiness and the courage to act in the social, cultural and economic
context.
Entrepreneurial qualities or behaviour include:
creativity and curiosity
motivation by success
willingness to take risks
ability to cooperate
identification of opportunities
ability to be innovative and tolerate uncertainty.
Cultures that value and reward such behaviour promote a propensity to develop and
introduce radical innovations, whereas cultures that reinforce conformity, group interests, and
control over the future are not likely to show risk-taking and entrepreneurial behaviour
(P. A. Herbig and J. C. Miller, 1992).
Hofstede conducted perhaps the most comprehensive study on how values in the
workplace are influenced by culture. From 1967 to 1973, while working at IBM as a
psychologist, he collected and analysed data from more than 100,000 individuals from 40
countries. From those results he developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions to
differentiate cultures.
• Power distance focuses on the degree of equality or inequality between people in the
country’s society.
4
From an article “National Culture and Entrepreneurship: A Review of Behavioural Research” from James C.
Hayton, Gerard George and Shaher A. Yahra, published in Entreneurship, Theory and Practice, Volume 26,
No. 4, Summer 2002, Baylor University.
2
• Individualism focuses on the degree to which the society reinforces individual or
collective achievement and interpersonal relationship.
• Masculinity focuses on the degree to which the society reinforces or does not reinforce
the traditional masculine role model of male achievement, control and power.
• Uncertainty avoidance focuses on the degree to which the society reinforces – or does
not reinforce – uncertainty and ambiguity within it.
A fifth dimension was included after conducting an additional study using a survey
instrument developed with Chinese employees and managers (called Confucian dynamism) to
look at a culture’s long-term orientation.
• Long-term orientation focuses on the degree to which the society embraces – or does
not embrace – long-term devotion to traditional, forward thinking values.
Based on Hofstede’s model, Shane (1992 and 1993)
5
conducted studies on national
culture and entrepreneurship in 33 countries to find out “the effect of national culture on
national rates of innovation” by using the dimensions of individualism, power distance,
uncertainty and masculinity. He observed that national rates of innovation are positively
correlated with individualism and negatively correlated with uncertainty avoidance and power
distance.
Other studies were conducted to explore the relationship between national culture and
characteristics of entrepreneurs (Scheinberg and MacMillan, 1988
6
who surveyed 1,402
entrepreneurs in 11 countries). The research question was “Are the motives of entrepreneurs
to start a business similar or different across cultures?” The following indicators were
used: need for approval, perceived instrumentality of wealth, communitarianism, need for
personal development, need for independence and need for escape. The major finding was
that the importance of these motives varies systematically across cultures.
A study (conducted by Shane, Kolvereid and Westhead, 1991)
7
researching motivation
for start-ups (597 entrepreneurs interviewed in 3 countries) obtained the same findings. The
reasons for starting a business (recognition of achievement, independence from others,
learning and development, and roles) vary systematically across countries.
This cultural difference may explain why different countries show very different
figures on entrepreneurial activities as monitored by the 2002 Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor Report
8
published by the London Business School, the Kauffman Foundation and
Babson College.
The GEM report researches the Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) of a country
based on the percentage of its labour force that is actively starting up a business or is the
owner/manager of a business that is less than 42 months old. It then examines why those
countries’ level of TEA differ. The latest rankings are given below.
5
See also footnote 4.
6
See also footnote 4.
7
See also footnote 4.
8
Their fourth report covers 37 countries and can be found at www.gemconsortium.org .
3
Table 1.1 Total Entrepreneurial Activities (TEA) in selected countries in 2002
Country TEA % Country TEA % Country TEA %
Thailand 19 Norway 9 Netherlands 5
India 18 Australia 9 Finland 5
Chile 16 Switzerland 7 Poland 4
Korea 15 Israel 7 Taipei 4
Argentina 14 Hungary 7 Sweden 4
New Zealand 14 South
Africa
7 Croatia 4
Brazil 14 Denmark 7 Hong Kong 3
Mexico 12 Singapore 6 France 3
China 12 Italy 6 Belgium 3
Iceland 11 UK 5 Russia 3
USA 11 Germany 5 Japan 2
Ireland 9 Spain 5
Canada 9 Slovenia 5
However, the cultural difference is not the only reason that people become
entrepreneurs.
The report identifies two types of entrepreneurs: those voluntarily pursuing an
attractive business opportunity and those who are engaged in entrepreneurship out of
necessity, because they can find no other suitable work. These split 60:40. Young people
seeking work, particularly in the developing world, fall mainly into this “necessity” group.
1.2 Relationship between cultural patterns and entrepreneurship
Research work and also the GEM report clearly show the strong influence of national
culture on enterprise creation.
A model of how culture is associated with entrepreneurship was developed by Hayton,
George and Zahra
9
that takes in consideration the studies described above. This model is quite
similar to that used for the GEM report.
As figure 1.1 shows, the model includes the individual aspect that consists of
cognition, needs and motives, beliefs and behaviour and the cultural values at individual and
societal level. The complementarities of cultural characteristics and institutional and
economic context influence entrepreneurship.
9
See also footnote 4.
4
Figure 1.1: How cultural characteristics influence entrepreneurship
Source: Hayton, George and Zahra, 2002.
This model could be used to explain at which level action has to be taken in order to
create the broad acceptance of a society towards entrepreneurship and to favour the
development of an enterprise culture that also targets youth.
To change the pattern of cultural determinates is a medium or long-term process. It
needs social campaigns to create positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial education has to be an integrated part of national curricula in
primary, secondary, vocational and higher education. Focusing on awareness-raising
programmes at education institutions and start-up programmes for youth allows governments
to influence the cultural attitudes towards a positive perception of entrepreneurial activities.
The ILO Recommendation No. 189
10
indicates how these cultural attitudes could be
influenced.
“Member States (of the ILO) should adopt measures, drawn up in consultation with
the most representative organizations of employers and workers, to create and strengthen an
enterprise culture which favours initiatives, enterprise creation, productivity, environmental
consciousness, quality, good labour and industrial relations, and adequate social practices
which are equitable. Members should consider:
1) pursuing the development of entrepreneurial attitudes, through the system and
programmes of education, entrepreneurship and training linked to job needs and
the attainment of economic growth and development, with particular emphasis
10
This Recommendation, concerning general conditions to stimulate job creation in small and medium
enterprises, was adopted by the International Labour Conference in 1998.
Cultural values
Individualism-collectivism
Uncertainty avoidance
Power distance
Masculinity-femininity
Cognition
Schemata
Knowledge structures
Decision preferences
Needs and Motives
Needs for achievement
Needs for affiliation
Individual and social goals
Beliefs and Behaviour
Risk-taking
Locus of control
Self-efficacy
Institutional
context
Economic
context
Entrepreneurship
New-venture creation
Corporate venturing
Small and micro
business
Self-employment
(Society)
(Individual)
5
being given to the importance of good labour relations and multiple vocational
and managerial skills needed by small and medium-sized enterprises;
2) seeking, through appropriate means, to encourage a more positive attitude
towards risk-taking and business failure by recognizing their value as a learning
experience, while at the same time recognizing their impact on both entrepreneurs
and workers;
3) encouraging a process of lifelong learning for all categories of workers and
entrepreneurs;
4) designing and implementing, with full involvement of the organizations of
employers and workers concerned, awareness campaigns to promote
a) respect for the rule of law and workers’ rights, better working conditions,
higher productivity and improved quality of goods and services;
b) entrepreneurial role models, and award schemes, taking due account of the
specific needs of women and disadvantaged and marginalized groups.”
The institutional context, which comprises the social systems institutions, the social
partners, and the regulatory and legal system, also reflects the cultural background of a
society. Changes within the institutional context towards a conducive enterprise culture,
however, can be reached in the medium term if there is a strong political will.
Economic growth is the key element for enterprise creation and enterprise growth.
Entrepreneurial activities will reinforce the dynamic of growth. Policy that favours enterprise
creation and enterprise expansion will amplify the process of economic growth and create
new and more employment – needed to absorb young people entering the labour market.
In conclusion, the main characteristics that influence the labour market and the
entrepreneurship situation in a country are:
• enterprise culture
• institutional context
o policy framework
o outreach of the social network
o education and skills level
o enterprise promotion
• strength of the economy and its sectors.
1.3 Labour market and employment situation of youth
The world’s population is growing at a time when traditional, stable labour markets
are shrinking. In developed and developing countries alike, rapid globalization and
technological change have altered both how national economies are organized and what is
produced. Countries differ widely in their restructuring practices, depending on tradition and
culture, as well as the legal and regulatory framework. But a common factor is that traditional
employees, entrepreneurs, managers and the roles of men and women are changing
throughout the world. In most countries, redundancies and unemployment have been one of
the main social costs of the restructuring that continues to take place.
6
Figure 1.2: Labour market movements, entrances and exits
Figure 1.2 shows movements within the labour market as well as the entrances and the
exits. The demand for wage labour comes from the public sector with its administration,
public facilities and state-owned companies. However, the trend in recent years was to
decrease employment in the public sector by increasing the productivity of its administration,
by reducing the services provided to the population and by the privatization of public
enterprises. The private sector with its large, medium and small enterprises could not absorb,
in most cases, this labour. On the contrary, in an economic crisis period, this sector released
workers and employees that upped the unemployment rate and consequently self-employment
and the creation of micro enterprises operating in the informal economy.
In such a situation young people entering the labour market have little chance of
finding employment. Self-employment is often a survival strategy to generate some income
for subsistence.
Becoming the owner of a micro or small enterprise could be an alternative for a young
person who has an entrepreneurial mindset but who also possesses some of the basic skills
and knowledge requirements. Awareness of this career option and an enabling environment
for enterprise creation play a crucial role for a successful start-up.
However, only a small percentage of the labour market population belongs to the
group of private entrepreneurs or self-employed. The number depends on the prevailing
political system, the cultural acceptance of entrepreneurship and the economic strength of the
country.
1.4 Socio-economic context by category of countries
1.4.1 Industrialized countries
The policy of industrialized countries favoured in general market economy and private
sector development move within a range from liberalism (little involvement of the State) to a
Labour market
formal and informal
Government;
Enterprises
-large
-medium
-small
Workers/
employees
Micro entrepreneurs
Self-employed
Unemployed
Exits
Pre-retired
Retired
Illness
Death
Entrances
Universities
Vocational
training
School leavers
-primary level
-secondary level
School drop-
outs
-all levels
Without school
education
7
social market economy. These countries developed strong economies with a high-tech,
export-oriented production sector and a large service sector – both dominated by private
enterprises of medium and small size. Agriculture in terms of employment is insignificant.
The social protection and labour market measures are well developed. Workers and
employees in industrialized countries are highly protected. Reduction of unemployment has
highest political priority. Unemployed persons can obtain financial support, benefit from
retraining measures, and apply for support and loans for start-ups, etc. Active labour market
interventions facilitate the re-integration of unemployed into the labour market. Social
transfer payments can even be higher than minimum wages.
Education and skills level is high due to compulsory school attendance, a large high
school and university system and a modern vocational training system.
In industrialized countries entrepreneurship development and enterprise creation is
facilitated in many ways. There is buying power for goods and services and a variety of
promotion programmes and training facilities through Chambers of Commerce, Chambers of
Crafters, business associations, government-subsidized programmes, start-up financing and
many others. But there is also tough competition that prevents many potential starters from
taking the risk of becoming an entrepreneur.
Potential business starters are often highly qualified persons with strong motivation
that create their enterprises as a spin-off from bigger enterprises in high-tech sectors. Young
university diploma holders with some enterprise experiences are targeted frequently by this
sector. Crafters and artisans who gained experience in small enterprises very often create an
enterprise to be “on their own account”.
Another group of potential business starters constitutes laid-off workers who have not
found wage employment and therefore start a business – frequently in the service sector.
Depending on their qualifications, individuals from the laid-off worker group can perform
very well but usually prefer to opt for social security benefits and return to wage employment
as soon as possible.
Mixed patterns were found concerning the enterprise culture. The social status of an
entrepreneur is highly estimated in some countries; in others the entrepreneur is considered as
the “capitalist”. However, there is a change of attitude in recent years and in particular young
university diploma-holders, skilled workers and artisans are considering the possibility of
becoming entrepreneurs as a valuable option.
In spite of sustained economic growth throughout the 1990s, many people are still
living in poverty. Income inequality is increasing year-on-year. Rapid technological change,
international competition and the shift from an industrial to a knowledge- and information-
based economy have all contributed to greater uncertainty and turbulence in markets and the
business environment.
8
Figure 1.3 Youth and overall unemployment rates (percentage, 1994)
Youth and overall unemployment rates of OECD countries, 2002
0 10 20 30 40 50
Poland
Slovak Rep
Spain
Turkey
Greece
Italy
Finland
Germany
Canada
Czech Rep.
Belgium
Australia
USA
Hungary
Japan
Portugal
New Zealand
Sweden
U K
Austria
Ireland
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Korea
Iceland
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Mexico
15-24(%)
15-64(%)
The situation of youth employment in most of the surveyed countries is worse than the
general employment situation. Youth unemployment is twice to three times higher than the
average unemployment rate, mainly because of those young with low-level education and no
vocational training. As figure 1.3 shows, there are only a few countries in the world where the
general unemployment rate and the youth unemployment rate are the same, among them
Germany and Austria.
In economically disadvantaged areas, local labour markets cannot even absorb the
graduates of their basic and higher education systems. Under-employment poses a major
problem. Young people usually move further afield in search of jobs that match their skills
set, resulting in significant brain drain and the emptying out of areas. Furthermore, high-
school graduates are increasingly worse off than those with higher degrees over the past 15
years, since the possession of higher degrees is increasingly perceived by employers as
implying the possession of qualities that are more useful in the labour market. For those less
well educated, where once a strong back and a will to work guaranteed steady employment,
these people now find themselves in low-paid, high-turnover service sector jobs.
9
1.4.2 Transition countries
Since the beginning of the 1990s the countries with centrally planned economies were
transforming their political and economic system into parliamentarian democracies and
market economies. This process was accompanied by political instability, local armed
conflicts, emergence of economic sectors without legal control and the impoverishment of a
large share of the population – in particular older people.
Now, ten years into the transition process, political stability has improved and the
legal framework is adapting to the new political and economic conditions. The start of
European Union accession negotiations indicates the comparatively successful progress of
these countries towards full democracy and free-market enterprise. Naturally, however, some
problems persist. In areas such as environmental standards, governance and law enforcement,
there is a wide discrepancy with the EU norms.
In addition, for some of these countries (including some in the process of accession),
their economic performance has not yet reached their pre-transition levels. A number of state-
owned unprofitable companies are not yet privatized or closed. The agriculture sector faces
similar problems. State-owned production units were dismantled but privatization of land did
not follow and/or the individual plots distributed to farmers were too small for mechanized
production. Self-employment for survival as street-vendors, day-labourers or subsistence
farmers is often the only source of income. The informal sector emerged as a substantial part
of the economy.
In these countries, the economy is still weak and not able to generate sufficient taxes
to allow their governments to maintain the social security network. Unemployed persons
obtain scant benefits and little help to reintegrate into the labour market. Retired people
cannot live on their pensions.
The education system also suffered from the transition process, as the State could not
afford to cover the costs for schooling and for higher education. Skills training was linked to
the state-owned enterprise sector and training centres disappeared along with enterprises. A
new vocational training system that could take over these centres and adapt them to the needs
of modern technology requires a huge investment. That being said, the transition countries
still dispose of a well-educated and technically well trained labour force that can facilitate
adaptation for modernized enterprises.
Enterprise creation does not occur as an idea to unemployed persons or wage
labourers threatened with dismissal, as there is no private enterprise culture. Here is a real
chance for young people who during the transition period to a market economy have studied
modern management and who are willing to take risks.
Unemployment is but one dimension of the employment problems that confront youth.
There are those who are able to cope, those who exercise their entrepreneurial spirit by
carving out a living from activities in the informal sector (such as artisan crafts, street
vending, cooperative work and recycling). However their social, economic and cultural
isolation and lack of ties makes them vulnerable to exploitation and a multitude of dangers
that include organized and random crime, unemployment, sexually transmitted diseases,
cultural intolerance, and escalating drug and alcohol abuse. The problems facing youth are
more significant in rural areas due to the lack of support systems. In poorer countries, where
public or family sources provide little income support, jobless young people are often denied
10
the “luxury” of remaining unemployed. They eke out a living by means of low productivity
work in the lower, subsistence-oriented, reaches of the informal economy or in such low-yield
activities as odd jobs, hawking and car washing. Here the problem may not be short hours but
excessively long hours with little reward. The widespread stagnation and decline of
employment opportunities in the formal sectors of most developing countries has intensified
the problem in recent years, with young women bearing a disproportionate burden.
1.4.3 Developing countries
Developing countries are characterized by their extreme poverty, high demographic
pressure, dominant agriculture sector and little integration in the global economy.
The prevailing political division of the world in communist/socialist countries and
democratic/capitalist countries determined the political development of these countries after
their independence. Those that followed the socialist model faced all the problems of central
planning, aggravated by the incapacity of the administration and the discouragement of the
private sector. Those who followed the capitalist model could in the beginning attract
considerable foreign investment, in particular for exploitation of their natural resources.
However, both models failed in most cases: lack of democracy resulted in dictatorship,
military rule, political unrest, civil war and hostilities among neighbouring states.
Today most of the developing countries have adapted their legal framework to
democratic rules with parliaments, multi-party systems and market economy. Poverty
reduction is the highest priority for these countries. Governments consider micro and small
enterprise development as a promising way for employment creation.
The economy is mainly based on exploitation of local resources for exportation,
agriculture products and a few manufactured products for the local market. Administrations
were forced to dismiss a substantial number of civil servants in order to cope with their
limited resources. The agriculture sector and the informal sector in urban areas provide nearly
all employment.
Schooling is not generalized and vocational training centres are insufficient in
numbers and quality. In the main, universities offered studies that would lead to employment
in the administration or the formal enterprise sector; however, the absorption capacity of this
segment of the labour market is very limited.
Nowadays in most of these countries, entrepreneurs have a rather positive reputation
and governments are willing to promote business creation. This generates a favourable
environment, in particular for young people with a good educational background and skills
and the risk-taking necessary to start an enterprise. It should be noted that entrepreneurs
reported they are often exposed to red tape and corruption.
In these countries, youth unemployment can be classified into two groups: primary
school leavers not selected for secondary school education and secondary school leavers who
are unable to gain employment in the formal sector. Official unemployment rates are much
higher among youth and rural women – although most young people will attempt to earn a
11
living in the informal economy.
11
The size of the informal economy in terms of employment
stands around 40 per cent in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal and Pakistan.
12
In a survey
of those living in the slums of Bangkok, 87 per cent of those in employment earned a living
through the informal sector. Undoubtedly a large number of these will have had little or no
education.
13
According to the ILO’s World Employment Report 1998-99, “the lack of jobs in
the formal sector of the economy as well as the lack of skills in a large part of the labour force
has resulted in the growth of a substantial informal sector in which most workers are in low-
paid employment under unregulated and poor working conditions.”
Young women typically face higher unemployment rates than young men or have
lower participation rates, although the situation varies considerably between countries. In
many developing countries, girls are outperforming boys at school, but this does not
necessarily translate into greater labour market success. This is still the case, partly because
many girls remain concentrated in traditional fields of study, often not related to rapidly
evolving labour market needs. In addition, some girls may still be the intended or unintended
targets of gender discrimination. In other countries, such as Ghana, India and Kenya, girls’
access to education and training is limited, forcing young women disproportionately into the
informal sector and subsistence-oriented activities. In some countries, economic inactivity is
imposed on young women.
1.4.4 Other countries
The main characteristics of industrialized, developing and transition countries are
described above. However, there are also countries with different characteristics and internal
regional or sector differences of development. They belong partly to industrialized countries
and partly still to developing countries. The newly industrializing countries (NICs) respond to
these criteria. They have strong growth poles that favour micro and small enterprise
development but also have a share of population living in poverty.
11
This encompasses largely unrecognized, unrecorded and unregulated small-scale activities. It includes small
enterprises with hired workers, household enterprises using family labour and the self-employed. Production
processes characteristically rely on high levels of working capital as against fixed capital. Formal contracts
between employers and employees or between buyers and sellers are rare and the often invisible activities
involved usually fall below, or outside, the fiscal net.
12
ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1995.
13
Ratanakomut, S. C. 1994. Urban Poverty in Thailand: Critical Issues and Policy Measures, Asian Development
Review, Vol. 12, No. 1.
12
2. Promoting youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation:
Approaches and general findings
Over 510 million young women and 540 million young men live in the world today
according to United Nations (UN) estimates. This means that approximately one person in
five is between the ages of 15 and 24 years, or that young people comprise almost 18 per cent
of the world’s population. Although the proportion of youth in the world is dwindling (by
2025 it is forecast to fall to 16 per cent) their absolute numbers have increased and will
continue to do so well into the twenty-first century. The majority of young people, 85 per
cent, live in developing countries, with approximately 60 per cent in Asia alone. By 2020, the
number living in developing countries will grow to about 89 per cent.
The importance of education and training for an entrepreneurial society has been
underlined on several occasions through United Nations Declarations and Conventions. ILO
Recommendation No. 189, adopted in 1998, refers to entrepreneurship education as a way of
promoting a positive enterprise culture.
A recent key event in the international development of enterprise education was the
Intergovernmental Conference on Education and the Economy in a Changing Society held
under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
in Paris in 1988. The OECD educational monograph, Towards an Enterprising Culture,
issued soon after that conference, stated:
Changes in educational method are needed to foster competence in ‘being enterprising’
as a vitally important qualification needed by the young as they enter society. This
competence means having the ability to be creative and flexible, to be flexible to take and
exercise initiative and to be able to solve problems.
The importance given by the European Community to entrepreneurship education was
recently underlined in the European Charter for Small Enterprises (adopted by the General
Affairs Council, 13 June 2000, and welcomed by the Feira European Council, 19/20 June
2000) which stated:
Europe will nurture entrepreneurial spirit and new skills from an earlier age. General
knowledge about business and entrepreneurship needs to be taught at all school levels.
Specific business-related modules should be made an essential ingredient of education
schemes at secondary level and at colleges and universities. We will encourage and promote
youngsters’ entrepreneurial endeavours, and develop appropriate training schemes for
managers in small enterprises.
Promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise creation is high on the policy agenda of
almost all countries in the world, as successful enterprises generate additional employment.
But governments should realize that awareness programmes at primary and secondary school
level only have long-term effects. Programmes at vocational training schools are supposed to
have medium-term effects while university programmes can produce results in terms of
business creation in the medium- and short-term.
Entrepreneurship education stimulates young people to think about entrepreneurship
and the role of the business community in economic and social development. Students also
get an opportunity to analyse the changes taking place in their countries and are encouraged to
consider self-employment as a career choice.
13
2.1 National government policy
Few, if any, countries have created clear and comprehensive policy frameworks to
promote youth entrepreneurship and self-employment. Instead, we find elements of education
and training policy at different levels as they relate to the world of work and the world of
business. Increasingly, the concern of governments is to foster a spirit of enterprise and a
number of countries, especially in the European Union, promote self-employment as an
important part of their efforts to reduce youth unemployment.
The responsibility for appropriate education and training programmes is therefore
located within the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and
sometimes with the Ministries of Trade and Industry. In some cases, special inter-ministerial
committees have been convened. Concrete actions focus on programme interventions at
secondary and tertiary levels (see later chapters), awareness-raising campaigns or technical
and financial support and training provided through specifically-designed government
interventions.
Awareness-raising programmes at primary and secondary school level designed to
familiarize pupils with the philosophy of entrepreneurship by developing beliefs, behaviours
and motivation will have a long-term effect; they are expected to exert a positive influence on
enterprise culture. Such programmes integrated in vocational training curricula and university
courses will prepare the ground for entrepreneurship as a career option.
Programmes that aim at immediate enterprise creation for young people can be run at
vocational training schools or universities, but they will have the greatest effect outside the
educational system with people already in their twenties.
Within national education systems, there has been some debate on the meaning of
entrepreneurship and the form that entrepreneurship or enterprise education should take.
14
The
Australian Ministerial Council on Education, Employment and Training and Youth Affairs
adopts the following definition of enterprise education:
Learning directed towards developing in young people those skills, competencies,
understandings, and attributes which equip them to be innovative, and to identify, create,
initiate, and successfully manage personal, community, business and work opportunities,
including working for themselves.
The University of Durham (United Kingdom) suggests that there are a number of
different objectives and outcomes that can be achieved.
• Firstly, and most universally, enterprise education can be a path towards developing
enterprising skills, behaviours and attitudes through any curriculum subject at every
phase of education to provide a wider preparation for autonomy in life including work,
family or leisure.
• Secondly, it can provide insight into and help young people understand about the
entrepreneurial and business development processes through business education in
14
Enterprise education is a highly contested theme. There is tension between what might be termed pedagogical
preoccupations on the one hand, and political and labour market versions of enterprise on the other. Many
teachers are hostile to the notion of pupils being oriented to the free market in what may be termed the
externally-driven models of enterprise. On the other side, politicians and policy makers look to enterprise
education as a way of making pupils and students more ‘realistic’ or more ambitious about the world of work
that lies ahead.
14
secondary schools and in further and higher education allowing young people to work
more effectively in a flexible labour market economy or working in a small business.
• Finally, it can develop awareness of, and capability for, setting up a business now or
sometime in the future. This approach can be used in vocational and professional
education.
The learning effectiveness of such programmes should be measured not in terms of
rote knowledge but the acquisition of practical life skills and the ability of students to
anticipate and respond to societal changes more easily.
2.2 Teacher training and professional development
Within schools and non-formal education programmes, the agents of change are
teachers or facilitators.
Studies by the European Commission have highlighted the need for special training
courses to give teachers the confidence to develop enterprise education and make them more
aware of how they can help pupils or students gain entrepreneurial attitudes and skills.
Many countries now require teachers to take part in training courses, such as the
Skelleftea School Project in Sweden. In Scotland, a series of guides for secondary school
teachers have been developed which encourage reflection on the relationship between the
curricular aims of “Education for Work” – “Primary Teachers Guide for work experience”
and teaching and learning within the 5-14 curriculum and also for subjects taught to older
students.
The National Centre: Education for Work and Enterprise has been established at
Strathclyde University. The role of the National Centre is to raise awareness among educators
in Scotland of the vital role they play in providing young people with the skills and abilities
they need. It seeks to encourage employers and entrepreneurs to involve themselves fully in
education. The Centre is working with partners in Scotland to: promote the cause of
Education for Work and Enterprise with educators and employers; to develop teacher
capability, undertake research, promote new ideas and generally ensure that Education for
Work is given high priority by all.
The German Development Bank DtA funded a training package for teachers on
“Entrepreneur Culture” for students aged 15 and over.
15
In the United States, EdTec (an international not-for-profit orgnization) provides
teacher training through videoconferencing and the EDGE University “certified
entrepreneurship instructor” training, as well as an annual entrepreneurship educators’
conference. The New Youth Entrepreneur Instructor’s Guide, developed in conjunction with
the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, is a 239-page companion guide to the New Youth
Entrepreneur curriculum. It provides information on implementing the curriculum, module
overview, supplemental learning activities and handouts.
In the developing world, entrepreneurship training is mostly provided outside the
formal education system, using stand-alone training courses such as ILO’s Start and Improve
Your Business (SIYB). The agents of change in these programmes are trainers with hands-on
experience from the business world. Programme proliferation is based on the Training-of-
15
Developed by Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft SCHULE-WIRTSCHAFT.
15
Trainers (TOT) courses. The experience gained with this methodology was used to train
vocational training school teachers to give the Know About Business (KAB) programme in
East Africa and Central Asia.
Another example is the CEFE
16
programme from GTZ, which has developed
methodologies for training teachers at different educational levels. This programme was
employed by the Department of Vocational Education’s Small Entrepreneur Development
Project in Thailand for several TOT courses at the Rajamangala Institute of Technology
(RIT). The teachers applied their new skills in the diploma and bachelor level curricula. A
Small-Scale Industry curriculum was developed with the objectives of making students
understand: (a) how to start a business (b) how to raise funds (c) entrepreneurial techniques
(d) systems of production and services, and (e) attitudes required for creating a job
opportunity. The Foundation for Entrepreneurial and Business Development (FEBDEV) in
South Africa trains educators to teach entrepreneurial skills, and believes it contributes to
creating a spirit of enterprise through workshops and networking with decision makers.
The need for support for teachers has been reflected in a number of projects and
initiatives undertaken in Central and Eastern Europe. An example is the Slovenian national
programme to develop enterprise and business understanding within secondary schools; the
programme was taught between September 1996 and March 1998. The overall aim was to
provide a solid base for the national development of enterprise and business understanding
within the core curriculum of all general secondary schools in Slovenia. Under this
programme a core group of teachers attended a “train the trainers” type workshop, in order
that they could disseminate their knowledge and skills to other schools across the country.
At University and Business School level, the difficulty in finding appropriate trainers
with first-hand experience of managing a business is being resolved by the Centre for
Enterprise at Leicester University (UK) through an exchange programme. The programme
recognizes that entrepreneurship might best be learned from successful entrepreneurs and that
these rarely find the time to give seminars. The scheme therefore offers academics the chance
to change places with business people for part of the week. This gives entrepreneurs the
opportunity to work within an academic institution and to share their experience of managing
an SME with students.
A number of countries have provided additional support for teachers through
dedicated web sites. In the United Kingdom, the Department of Trade and Industry Enterprise
Guide site provides suggestions to help teachers develop enterprise education and
entrepreneurial skills among pupils in the 11 to 16 age range. Through information and case
studies it shows teachers how they can incorporate enterprise education into their schemes of
work. The Enterprise Education web site in Australia has been developed with support from
the Australian Department of Education through the Enterprise Education in Schools
programme.
2.3 Resource materials and training packages
The emergence of entrepreneurship education over the past few decades has increased
the need for curricula, training packages and resource materials. The latter vary in the scope
of the information and methods presented, according to the intended socio-economic and
educational audience. At lower levels of schooling, many educational materials are intended
16
Competency-based Economies through Formation of Enterprise, a GTZ-conceived form of training to promote
small business growth.
16
to impart a basic-to-intermediate understanding of business and market systems, and will
inculcate in students a desire to learn more about entrepreneurship and business in the future.
At higher levels, texts are designed to provide a balance between theory and practice. Other
materials are designed for older students, and some are intended for young people living in
disadvantaged communities, offering them an alternative to drugs, violence, and many other
problems prevalent in the inner-city.
2.4 Partnership arrangements
National Ministries of Education are beginning to forge genuine alliances with
agencies that possess comparative advantage in various aspects of training provision. In
Western countries, this usually involves collaboration with enterprise promotion agencies,
local Chambers of Commerce, the business community, public education and training
institutions, community-based organizations and regional or local government. In developing
and transition countries, national Ministries of Education are working with international
development assistance partners, local and international NGOs, and the private sector.
Partnerships with the business community are not limited to providing infrastructure
and financial support to the implementation partner. Some programmes have established
partnerships with the local business community on the basis of linkages into local supply
chains, which further strengthen the sustainability of the programme. Two examples are the
Philippines Agribusiness project and the Mukti Sadana project in India.
Partnership arrangements
17
have proved to be a key factor in the success of many
projects and programmes.
Role of inter-governmental and bilateral agencies
In September 2000 at the United Nations in New York as part of the Millennium
Declaration, the Heads of State and Government resolved to “develop and implement
strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive
work.”
18
In preparation for this meeting, Kofi Annan issued a report entitled “We the peoples:
The role of the United Nations in the 21st century.” Here the Secretary-General first proposed
his Youth Employment Network:
Together with the heads of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization,
I am convening a high-level policy network on youth employment drawing on the most
creative leaders in private industry, civil society and economic policy to explore imaginative
approaches to this difficult challenge. I will ask this policy network to propose a set of
recommendations that I can convey to world leaders within a year. The possible sources of
solutions will include the Internet and the informal sector, especially the contribution that
small enterprises can make to employment generation.
19
17
Here, partnership means arrangements where governments, the international community, businesses and
schools commit through mutual beneficial activities to give students greater insights into questions related to the
world of work and business and to prepare them for self-employment.
18
General Assembly Resolution A/RES/55/2, para. 20.
19
We the peoples: The role of the United Nations in the 21
st
century, United Nations, New York, 2000, pp. 25-26.
17
The Secretary-General requested civil society and industry leaders to form a panel
responsible for formulating recommendations on ways to reduce youth unemployment.
20
The
panel’s recommendations
21
encourage world leaders to take personal responsibility for
translating the commitments made at the Millennium Summit into action through a specific
political process. First Heads of State and Government are invited to develop national action
plans on youth employment with targets for the creation of jobs and for the reduction of
unemployment and to present these plans to the United Nations in a year’s time. These action
plans should be based on a critical and self-critical review of past national policies.
Furthermore, ten governments are invited to volunteer to champion this process, to take the
lead in preparing their action plans and in showing the way to others.
At the international level, the Global Partnership for Youth Development (GPYD) was
launched in early 1999 by the World Bank, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and the
Kellogg Company to study, promote and invest in good examples of tri-sector partnerships in
youth development around the world. The GPYD brings together influential leaders,
multinational corporations and smaller companies, government officials, regional
development banks, overseas development assistance agencies and local and international
foundations. In many countries, this has resulted in interventions to promote and support self-
reliance through entrepreneurship and self-employment. The IYF provides the global
secretariat of the GPYD.
An example of a regional partnership with an inter-sectoral focus is the Inter-
American Working Group on Youth Development (IAWGYD). This is a consortium of
international donor agencies that supports new approaches to youth development and
participation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
22
The IAWGYD exchanges information on
best practices, jointly mobilizes technical and financial resources, collaborates on specific
projects and advocates for effective youth policies.
Another example of a regional network is the European Youth Forum, established by
national youth councils and international NGOs to represent the interests of young people
from all over Europe. It provides a platform for youth representation in government policy
and institutions and in international institutions, namely the European Union, the Council of
Europe and the United Nations. Ideas and experiences are exchanged among the network of
91 members. The main areas of implementation include: advocacy; citizenship and lifelong
20
The members of the High-Level-Panel of YEN are:
Mr. Saifuddin Abdullah, President of the Malaysian Youth Council
Mr. César Alierta, Executive President of Telefonika S.A.
Dr. Ruth C.L. Cardoso, President, Comunitas Programmes
Mr. Hernando de Soto, President, Instituto Liberdad y Democracia
Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, President, International Center for Research on Women
Mr. Bill Jordan, Secretary-General of ICFTU
Mr. Allan Larson, Former EU Director-General for Employment and Social Affairs
Mr. Rick Little, Founder of the International Youth Foundation
Ms. Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary-General of ICC
Mr. Magatte Wade, Director-General AEGETI-Sénégal
Hon. Ralph Willis, former Australian Treasurer and former Minister for Employment
Dr. Rosanna Wong, Executive Director, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
21
United Nations General Assembly, Document A/56/422.
22
The IAWGYD includes the Canadian International Development Agency, Global Meeting of Generations,
Inter-American Development Bank, Inter-American Foundation, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on
Agriculture, International Youth Foundation, Organization of American States, Pan American Health
Organization, Partners of the Americas, UNESCO, UNICEF, United Nations Youth Unit, United States Agency
for International Development, United States Peace Corps, the World Bank and Youth Service America.
18
learning; employment and social affairs; human rights and equality, global youth cooperation;
youth work development; membership and training; and communications.
Role of the business community
At international and national levels, the private sector is working directly with national
and local governments to facilitate interventions. Such partnership arrangements have helped
to strengthen curriculum areas through the engagement of mentors from the local business
community. They also help to draw the school into a broader plan for local economic and
community development. Business owners often serve on the advisory boards and curriculum
committees of secondary schools and higher education institutions, particularly vocational
training schools, technical colleges and business schools. They may also act as classroom
speakers or work placement employers.
Youth Business International (YBI), implemented by the Prince of Wales International
Business Leaders Forum (United Kingdom) is a worldwide network whose purpose is to
enable the business community to help young people into self-employment by providing
business mentoring and access to finance. The Youth Business Initiatives work with local
training and micro-credit partners, as well as organizations such as the British Council and
Shell LiveWire during the start-up and early growth stages. Participating countries and
organizations include: Youth Business Foundation, Canada; Baharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust
(BYST), India; Hambantota Youth Business Trust, Sri Lanka.
At the national level, in Norway, the Confederation of Norwegian Business and
Industry (NHO) is helping to realize the intentions in the Core Curriculum where it states that
“education shall provide learners with awareness of the variety and scope of the world of
work,” and that “the world of work is part of the school’s broader learning environment.”
The arrangement involves elementary education, secondary education and teacher education.
More specifically, the partnership contributes to the development of teaching aids designed to
make the world of business a significant part of the learning environment in schools. The
collaboration may entail students visiting businesses; businesses visiting schools (e.g. guest
lecturers); businesses adopting a class; project work on themes connected to the world of
business; and business leaders functioning as consultants to student enterprises. A consultant
is hired full-time or part-time in all regions of the country as an element of the Confederation
of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO)-Partnership.
The University Institute of Technology (IUT) in France has established a partnership
arrangement with local bankers, lawyers from the Chamber of Commerce and the APCE (the
local agency for the creation of companies) to support successful student ideas for new
businesses.
Within the non-formal sector, the Agro-Business for Rural Youth in the Philippines
and the Drug Abuse and Prevention Programme for Marginalized Youth in Asia (DAPP) are
both based on partnerships with the local business community. Products created as a result of
the skills-based training are linked into local supply chains and thereby keyed into local
economic development, which makes them more likely to be sustainable in the long term.
In Kenya, the Kenya Management Assistance Programme (K-MAP) gets large
businesses to make their middle and top managers available to the owners of small-scale
business for advice and counselling, on a voluntary basis. Such programmes are usually
aimed at the emergent entrepreneur rather than the subsistence self-employed. At the
19
international level, actors such as Shell, Compaq, Motorola and Cisco Systems have been key
players through programmes such as Shell LiveWire, Motorola XXI and others. Innovative
delivery models, such as Shell LiveWire, offer loans within an integrated package of
assistance.
The role of civil society/NGOs
A number of national and international foundations (both civil society and corporate)
have formed partnerships with national governments and NGOs to promote enterprise growth
among young entrepreneurs nationally and internationally. NGOs throughout the world, but
especially in developing countries, tend to focus on education and training opportunities for
at-risk youth.
The International Youth Foundation (IYF) has been heavily involved in raising
awareness about issues facing youth. YouthNet International is IYF’s vehicle for the
development and exchange of information on effective programmes and practices that support
the development of children and youth aged from 5 to 20. This is done by linking the field
experience of programmes around the world to academic and policy research; fostering
networking and interaction among those with common concerns and interests; organizing
workshops and meetings; disseminating published and electronic information; facilitating
partnerships and learning exchanges.
Specialized NGOs have evolved dealing with different dimensions of self-
employment and micro-enterprise. Some NGOs are concerned with the promotion of free
market values (e.g. the Urban Foundation in South Africa). Others focus entirely on small-
scale credit, product development, women entrepreneurs, or the vocational training of young
people in rural and urban situations. Here, NGOs (southern, northern and in partnership) are
probably a more significant source of support than central or local government schemes.
23
However, a very large number of NGOs are interested in training for its social benefits
above all else. They have developed frameworks for dealing with issues such as HIV/AIDS
awareness, health, environment and support for women by focusing on the holistic
development of the individual and through activities to create sustainable livelihoods.
24
Micro
finance programmes in this context are relatively new and such programmes tend to develop
much more specific linkages between different social problems affecting youth or community
development strategies.
25
NGOs concerned with vocational training are a highly diverse group, ranging from
northern organizations with worldwide coverage to those with links to a single village. There
23
There is a tendency for them to be more oriented to subsistence self-employment than the more entrepreneurial
type, and for income-generation activities to be included in larger multi-purpose, community development
projects.
24
A livelihood is everything people know, have, and do to make a living. Applied to youth, the livelihoods
approach comprises a broad and interrelated set of programmes and policies that include: giving youth
opportunities to generate and earn income; providing credit, savings and other financial services and related
training in job and business skills; developing institutions, alliances and networks for youth to advance their
economic interests; and promoting policy and social changes that improve young people’s livelihood prospects.
In many cases, training is provided in diverse skills and specialities in order to diversify the economy and reduce
reliance on one product.
25
For example, many micro-finance organizations in the hardest-hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa now offer
products specifically for AIDS-affected clients and households, although some of these products may have
limited applicability. Innovative financial products geared to AIDS-affected youth include the establishment of
education trusts for minors and allowing youth from AIDS-affected households to use micro-finance services.
20
is a variety of coverage among southern NGOs too, although very few (e.g. CIDE in Latin
America) are more than national in their scope. Some NGOs have religious origins (e.g.
CADEC in Zimbabwe); others derive from political parties (e.g. the German Konrad
Adenauer Stiftung and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung); but many have more practical origins. In
many countries, such as Kenya and India, a first generation of religious NGOs has tended to
be complemented by a second generation of more secular agencies.
2.5 Most common programme features
In spite of the broad differences in economic, social and cultural contexts for
entrepreneurship and enterprise education across regions and countries, there are nevertheless
some similarities in the way that these programmes have been conceived and are delivered at
different levels of education. All the projects and programmes suggest, to varying degrees,
that the key to promoting entrepreneurial initiative is in engaging the imagination of students,
that is, in assisting them to think of developing their own business ideas, by showing them, at
least in part, what it could be like to establish and run their own businesses.
Most programmes tend to combine classroom-based instruction with mentoring,
guidance and counselling, practical experience and a menu of support that is adapted to the
socio-economic circumstances of the participants and is flexible enough to evolve as their
needs and priorities change. In North America, not-for-profits specializing in enterprise and
entrepreneurship education are now servicing programmes in both the formal and non-formal
sectors. In the developing world, toolkits and methodologies such as KAB and SIYB from
ILO, CEFE from GTZ, the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative and Street Kids
International, to name a few, have been developed and widely replicated.
An important part of stimulating the imagination in this way is the process of
“learning-by-doing”, or experiential learning, which nurtures the personal qualities,
characteristics and attitudes of successful entrepreneurs. The learner reflects on personal
experience and relates it to the theoretical aspects, creating a dynamic relationship. Repeated
cycles of learning from classroom experiences are the essence of the entrepreneurial way of
learning.
A common theme running through entrepreneurship and enterprise education
programmes, irrespective of socio-economic context, is that they are often delivered within
the framework of partnership arrangements and coalitions at both national and international
levels. The rise in popularity of public/private sector partnership arrangements within the
formal sector is often primarily to facilitate learning and promote sustainability within the
framework of a coherent plan for local economic development. In Western countries, they
often take the form of strengthened cooperation between education and training authorities
and business associations and enterprise boards. The Golden Vale Young Entrepreneurs
Scheme Awards (YES) in Ireland, for example, is carried out in association with City and
County Enterprise Boards throughout the country.
In developing countries, strategic partnerships are formed to enable the Centre for
Education and Enterprise Development (South Africa) to deliver a holistic and integrated
programme to its target group. The private sector, such as Shell LiveWire in Singapore, runs
an outreach campaign to ensure that potential entrepreneurs outside the student population are
able to participate in workshops. It also offers an awards scheme and a mentoring programme.
21
3. Findings at different levels of education
The following part of this working paper presents the lessons learned from
programmes implemented at different levels of education. The programme descriptions are
listed in the Directory under headings which follow the structure of this chapter.
3.1 Secondary level
3.1.1 Overview
In numerous countries around the world, entrepreneurship and enterprise education are
being integrated into secondary schools (in some countries already at primary level) as part of
the core curriculum, or as an optional subject or after-school activity such as after-school
clubs, summer camps, and weekend workshops.
Programmes aimed at awareness-raising, motivation and behavioural changes are
targeting pupils from 5 to 8 years. Practical experience in enterprises lasting from one to three
weeks for the age group 14 to 16 is compulsory in some countries, e.g. Australia, Germany or
France. Students aged 15 to 19 follow programmes on business plan development and micro-
enterprise start-up as part of school activities in schemes like the YES programme. Often
these programmes are organized as competitions and the winners are sanctioned with awards
or prizes.
The tools and resources used generally depend on the country context. The important
element in successful programmes is that they are based on experiential learning and
teamwork, which promotes initiative and responsibility through ownership of the process. The
models of delivery include:
- Subject-based enterprises
Secondary school teachers provide learners with the opportunity to work in groups to
set up and run subject-related enterprise projects. The aim of such an approach is to motivate
pupils to learn and to help them to see the relevance of the subject to the world outside school.
- Mini-enterprises and mini-companies
These programmes can take place within lessons, as cross-curricular off-timetable
events or as out-of-school activities. The pupils decide on a product or service which they
produce and sell to customers. Sometimes start-up capital is provided by a local bank in the
form of a loan. In mini-companies, finance is raised from shareholders. Members of the group
take on different roles: producing, marketing, selling, accounting, etc. The enterprise usually
ends with a report of the group’s activity.
In some cases, learners are also encouraged to engage in portfolio management or
even e-commerce and are assisted through a combination of mentoring, competitions, awards
schemes and work placement. Such activities are seen to reinforce most areas of the broader
curricula, including maths, science, art and languages.
The choice of focus is determined at the particular school and is based on the interests
of the staff and pupils involved, as well as the nature of local resources and markets.
Programme costs are usually met by national education systems, although enterprising
22
schools can also identify sponsoring companies, which provide mentors and advisers for the
student group and work with teachers. In fact, members of the local business and voluntary
community are often encouraged to become involved or offer entrepreneurship programmes
in schools by providing volunteers for classroom instruction and specialized curricula for
entrepreneurial studies.
3.1.2 Developed countries
Entrepreneurship education in all its aspects is commonly offered in the United States,
Canada and Australia. It is becoming more common in Europe. Curriculum guidelines,
materials and resources for enterprise programmes and interventions in industrialized
countries tend to be fairly advanced, relying on specially designed supplementary course
materials, multimedia and Internet. Interventions are facilitated through group – and one-to-
one mentoring with volunteers from the business and not-for-profit community, work
placements, entrepreneurship competitions, etc. In addition, students can participate in trade
fairs, end of year events through which students win performance awards, and national and
international business simulation networks on the Internet.
Programmes at secondary level are either designed and supplied by national education
systems (often the case in Europe) or are purchased from not-for-profits specializing in
enterprise education (often the case in the United States). Some schools, especially in
economically disadvantaged areas, tend to work with other schools on the same programmes,
enabling students to share their experiences.
Teachers are trained in specialized courses and seminars. In the United States, in-
service workshops are now being organized as part of teacher conferences for groups of
teachers in the same discipline. Because funding for these workshops requires commitment
from educational leaders at the school and state level, efforts have increased to communicate
the importance of entrepreneurship education at secondary level to school managers and
administrators through conferences and newsletters.
3.1.3 Transition and developing countries
Politicians in transition countries, particularly in South-East Europe, are more and
more aware of the need for entrepreneurship education at school. However, most of the
programmes are implemented as a trial run rather than on a broad base.
In developing countries, entrepreneurship education at secondary level is rather
limited and the degree of sophistication depends on the resources available to the school.
Interventions are most frequently funded by inter-governmental organizations, bilateral
technical assistance partners or international NGOs.
3.2 Technical and vocational education
3.2.1 Overview
In the past, policy makers and implementers have often viewed industry in narrowly
modern sector-oriented terms. National technical and vocational education and training
(TVET) systems were designed in a way that nurtures certain skills and values in the
expectation that graduates would progress into the formal labour market. Furthermore, rural
education and training have often suffered from the tendency for provision at local level to
23
reflect national planning directives focusing on the dominant sector of the national economy
rather than local needs.
Given the turbulence and uncertainty of different market sectors, the rigid emphasis on
preparation for waged employment is diminishing. Young people with the potential to go into
business are being helped with opportunities to apply their technical knowledge in a
commercial environment or to participate in creating and developing a real company that
markets its own products. Some countries have also established small business centres as part
of broader efforts to stimulate entrepreneurship. These usually offer consultancy and
counselling services to recent vocational school graduates and provide need-based training for
the same target group.
Traditional public sector TVET is still the most common delivery mechanism;
however, there is now a wider range of courses available, frequently sponsored by
international development assistance partners, the private sector and international NGOs.
There is also a variety of coverage among southern NGOs, although very few (e.g. CIDE in
Latin America) are more than national in their scope. Such programmes are delivered either
through government channels or independent centre facilities in close collaboration with
national counterparts. The ILO programme “Know about Business” (KAB) is specially
designed for vocational training centres and is already field tested in several countries in
Africa, Latin America and Central Asia.
Entrepreneurship education combined with vocational training can have a strong
impact on business creation, as apprentices are exposed to the world of work if they go
through enterprise-based training.
3.2.2 Developed countries
The main emphasis of the European Union Member States’ efforts to reduce youth
unemployment has been on making vocational education and training more attractive and
relevant to young people. More countries are also exploring new ways of improving access to
the labour market through changing the rules governing apprenticeship or adjusting the
regulations on unemployment benefits, and by providing subsidies or other incentives to
employers who take on young workers. Many programmes now provide work experience as
an integral part of training, either in firms or in simulated work environments such as the
“Work Centres” in Greece.
The social partners, and especially employers, are involved in the development of
training. Their involvement has come about through national agreements (e.g. Italy),
participation in apprenticeship provision in countries with a form of dual system (e.g.
Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland), or through agreements, or
Compacts, between employers and young people in training, such as in the United Kingdom.
Some countries, notably Belgium and Germany, offer pre-entry courses for young people
lacking the necessary formal qualifications. Other countries, for example Ireland, Italy and the
United Kingdom, are developing forms of integrated provision to ensure that the various
qualifications and programmes link together and provide coherent progression pathways for
young people entering the labour market.
24
3.2.3 Transition countries
In Central and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States,
vocational education and training in the past was tailored to the needs of large companies
employing excessive numbers of staff, with low levels of innovation and productivity.
Ministries of Education or sector ministries in charge of vocational education and training
were closely involved in defining the scope, contents and length of vocational programmes,
thus encouraging high rigidity and fragmentation within the system.
Since 1989, the breadth, range and depth of the proposed and implemented reforms in
vocational and technical training are extraordinary.
26
They concern every level and sector of
the system: legislation, management and administration, financing, vocational education and
training institutions, programmes and personnel. They also include the creation of new
institutions and the design of completely new types of curricula. The speed of the reform
process is also quite exceptional.
Technical and vocational education remains the responsibility of national Ministries of
Education. However programmes are frequently designed and delivered within the framework
of inter-governmental and bilateral technical assistance partnerships and often within regional
development frameworks (for example, PHARE and TACIS in transition countries).
However, there are also examples of successful transfer of know-how and local capacity
building, for example, through the Know-How Fund, which has been operational in Slovakia
for some years.
The ILO KAB programme has been introduced successfully in the Central Asian
Republic of Kyrgyzstan. After the training of a group of teachers and a test phase in a number
of training centres, the Government will use the KAB training package and methodology in
all training centres of the country. The Republic of Kazakhstan is also preparing to introduce
KAB in their vocational training system. Since September 2003 it has become part of the
national curriculum for vocational training
3.2.4 Developing countries
There is now recognition that national training systems must provide flexible training
opportunities that are adapted to urban and rural contexts and suggest alternative livelihoods
to both agriculture and the traditional, but shrinking, labour markets. Such opportunities must
be relevant to everyday contexts and the lives of young people.
Developing countries have been slow to develop clear policy guidelines for reforms to
TVET systems within their formal education systems and the implementation of reforms
remains highly dependent on external assistance from aid agencies. Furthermore, while
technical colleges are being encouraged to be more responsive to industry, the planning and
service delivery system makes this difficult because of under-resourcing. In such a situation
enterprise-based apprenticeship training including the informal sector constitutes a largely
untapped reservoir for young people.
Therefore, countries are slowly beginning to reorient themselves through partnerships
and collaborative arrangements with overseas universities, UN agencies and the private
sector. Such partnerships facilitate knowledge transfer and provide financial assistance. For
26
Source: The role of vocational education and training in transition countries: The case of Central and Eastern
Europe and the New Independent States, European Training Foundation (ETF), April 1996.
25
example, the Netherlands Government has been active in helping the Government of Zambia
to set up Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs) while the German Government has
supported the introduction of the Integrated Skills Training for Employment Promotion (IN-
STEP). Influential bilateral development agencies include USAID and DFID.
Some national training agencies have also been swift to adopt Entrepreneurial Skills
Development Programmes (ESDPs), which are increasingly popular in Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean and Latin America. Further, a programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat has
led to the development of Entrepreneurial Skills Development Guidelines and the launching
of pilot projects in several member countries.
Usually the demand for vocational training far exceeds government capacities and
facilities, especially in rural areas. It has thus become necessary to work with external training
partners and to subcontract training to ‘reputable’ master craftworkers. In the latter case,
methodologies have been created for training teachers at vocational level, particularly through
specialized development assistance frameworks such as CEFE (created by GTZ) or
EMPRETEC
27
(developed by UNCTAD). In terms of finding skilled instructors, CIDE-Chile
and TRYSEM-India have successfully hired local artisans to carry out training. These people
are usually paid every month according to the number of young people reached and they
profit from the sale of goods produced by trainees. They also receive a subsidy on the
purchase of necessary materials and a final payment for each trainee who graduates.
The experience of TRYSEM illustrates a number of problems, which are also found in
other rural vocational training programmes. One potential tension is between the various sub-
target groups of the rural poor. Another derives from the vast scale and complexity of rural
youth un- (or under-) employment, the almost unlimited demand for training and the acute
resource constraints. One consequence for TRYSEM (and other programmes which sub-
contract vocational training) is the risk that a non-target group (i.e. the master craftworkers)
will become the major beneficiaries of a programme intended to alleviate the poverty of rural
youth.
Overall, there are still not many cases of successful government-sponsored vocational
training for self-employment in the informal sector, in spite of statistics showing that the
majority of new jobs are being created in the so-called informal sector in developing and
transition countries. The major constraints identified by studies investigating the informal
sector include the lack of education and training opportunities, the lack of adequate technical
and managerial skills, lack of access to credit, and the indifferent and sometimes hostile
attitude of the government (ILO World Employment Report 1998-99).
3.3 University level
3.3.1 Overview
In order to satisfy the needs of those who have chosen self-employment/enterprise
creation, many universities now offer entrepreneurship courses at under-graduate and
graduate levels within their Business Schools or the relevant faculty. Such courses are more
common in industrialized countries. Where they have been established in developing and
transition countries, this has usually been made possible through a transfer of knowledge and
know-how from universities or external partners with established teaching and learning
methodologies.
27
EMPRETEC (Emprendedores tecnologia) is an international programme of UNCTAD.
26
Unlike more traditional areas of study, entrepreneurship courses tend to consist of a
varied assortment of classes and clubs, majors and co-majors, certificates and credits. Some
universities offer degrees in entrepreneurship. Many courses offer a thematic approach to
matters relating to business creation (e.g. control and business plan development, finance,
personnel, legal aspects of businesses, etc). Others offer modules, either as part of a
specialized degree or as part of another major. Some courses even have a sectoral focus such
as “e-Entrepreneurship”, “Entrepreneurship in developing countries” or “Social
entrepreneurship”.
Most programmes also use a variety of teaching methods and tools such as case
studies, internships, guest lectures, external review of student assignments by business
managers, mentoring and business simulation. They draw on a wide range of subjects to teach
students about enterprise creation, organizational structure, new ventures and the law, or
management. Furthermore, many universities have created Centres for Entrepreneurship,
Entrepreneurial Societies or action-learning units in order to support entrepreneurship in all
disciplines and help build understanding of how new ventures can best be supported from
start-up through to maturity. Often, these Centres enable students to experience
entrepreneurship through undertaking consultancy projects with local small businesses or
setting up and running their own businesses.
Another major factor for the success of university entrepreneurship courses in
developed, developing and transition countries is the establishment of linkages with local
Chambers of Commerce, commercial banks, economic development agencies, enterprise
boards and business development support institutions.
3.3.2 Developed countries
One noticeable trend in industrialized countries is the increase in university level
competitions and awards to stimulate new enterprise creation, especially in the United States
and Europe. They are often sponsored by large businesses, are linked to Entrepreneurship
Centres (see above) or are run in cooperation with local enterprise agencies or Chambers of
Commerce. The participants are usually required to be current students, recent graduates or
business-founding teams that include at least one university student. Winners of local
university competitions sometimes go on to national (and international) contests.
For example, teams from around the world competed at the Moot Corp International
Business Plan Competition at the University of Texas, Austin, described as “the granddaddy
of business competitions”. This year’s contest featured 26 teams, including one each from
licensed Moot Corp competitions in Africa, Asia, Australia and Canada. Contestants
competed for a first prize of $15,000. Hewlett Packard also offered $100,000 in goods and
services to one lucky team that agreed to launch an Internet company.
In addition to organizing competitions and teaching enrolled students, some
universities also provide education and training to existing business owners and
entrepreneurs. In the United States, the FastTrac programme is offered on a non-credit basis
and is designed to provide entrepreneurs with business knowledge, leadership skills and
professional connections in order to create or expand businesses.
In addition, some universities, such as the University of Southampton (United
Kingdom), spend time on knowledge transfer to the private sector through links with the
Research and Development (R&D) units of large companies. In fact, universities may even
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receive partial sponsorship from large companies for this purpose. The technology transfer
group in Southampton works with business, investors and all university members to help
commercialize university intellectual property, develop commercial partnerships and spin out
companies.
In Scotland, several universities have begun to diffuse entrepreneurship concepts
throughout higher education within the framework of a campaign initiated by Scottish
Enterprise in the late 1990s. Assistance and advice is provided on ways in which Scottish
universities can enhance, encourage and develop entrepreneurship education and promote an
enterprise culture that supports technology entrepreneurship. This is expected to result in
more business start-ups emerging from Scottish universities into the commercial marketplace.
Similarly, in Germany, the recent “Gründungskontakte” initiative has created a virtual
market place for industry and universities/colleges, giving knowledge agents in tertiary
education the chance to present their ideas, inventions and projects as the potential founders
of new businesses. It also provides SMEs with a forum for presenting specific R&D
requirements and finding out what higher education has to offer them.
3.3.3 Transition countries
In transition countries, the creation of entrepreneurship courses has sometimes been
made through knowledge transfer from European universities. In Slovenia a joint European
project (Tempus) has been established under the title ‘Undergraduate Education Centre for
Managing Small and Medium-Sized Companies’. One of the most successful study
programmes for managers of small and medium-sized companies in Europe, practised at the
University of Gothenburg and the University of Boras in Sweden, will be transferred into
Slovenian higher education through this project.
3.3.4 Developing countries
Entrepreneurship courses at university level are much less widespread in developing
countries. While the content of the courses which do exist is usually similar to that on offer in
Western countries, the sophistication of the tools varies according to the resources available.
In Kenya, a Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development is based at Jomo
Kenyatta University College of Agriculture and Technology. The Centre’s activities are
geared towards entrepreneurship, managerial and extension oriented research,
entrepreneurship studies and technological research, consultancy, rural enterprise
development, small and medium enterprise, information dissemination and appropriate
technology, and the organization of industry dialogues, conferences and appreciation
seminars. It is a ‘centre of excellence and innovation in the field of small-, medium-, and
large enterprise training, promotion and development’ (RCED brochure).
Some universities have successfully borrowed methodologies established elsewhere.
For example, the Institute for Small-Scale Industries, University of the Philippines (UP ISSI)
promotes entrepreneurship and enterprise education using and adapting various models, such
as those of McClelland, Management Systems International (famous for its PECs), GTZ
(CEFE model) and the ILO among others.
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3.4 Post formal education programmes
3.4.1 Overview
Many children slip through the net of the formal school system at an early age,
because their families cannot afford fees for tuition and materials, or because they have to
contribute to family income, or because they are simply uninterested in the school curricula.
This is a particularly big problem in developing countries with a high incidence of poverty. In
such countries the Ministries of Education are often hindered by a lack of resources and weak
administrative systems.
In response to the problem of vulnerability, a diverse range of support is now available
to young people to either start their own business and/or become self-employed in the formal
or informal sectors. Interventions include the provision of credit, mentoring, counselling
support, outreach, awards and competitions, and the training of trainers. Implementation is
through a variety of partners and modalities.
In difficult circumstances, young people are helped to become self-reliant through
sustainable income-generating activities, creating their own small businesses, sharpening their
academic skills, forming positive attitudes about themselves and their communities, as well as
acquiring the leadership skills required in the workplace. They benefit from a mentor’s
knowledge, resources and community connections. Most programmes adopt an action-
learning and low literacy approach and try to integrate the natural learning processes and
assets of youth.
A broader model has also evolved recently around the concept of life skills. This
approach encompasses the psycho-social aspects of dealing with issues related to
vulnerability and poverty, as well as training for self-employment or enterprise creation.
Special consultants work with young people on individual problems when needed.
Training providers include governmental and non-governmental organizations, church
groups and small-scale enterprises (including family subsistence groups). Programmes are
usually implemented at centre facilities, public schools, or as after-school programmes at
community-based organizations and intensive summer business camps. In developing
countries, interventions are often a collaborative effort between United Nations agencies,
bilateral technical assistance partners, national and international NGOs and the private sector.
General programmes facilitate access to capital and offer a package of support
services to ensure that the business idea has a high likelihood of surviving beyond the critical
start-up phase and the first two or three years of trading. Certain programmes are open to all
young people, whether they are currently self-employed or wishing to set up their own
business as entrepreneurs.
Micro finance programmes are already common, but have recently begun to develop
much more specific linkages between different social problems affecting youth or with
community development strategies. Programmes specifically target at-risk, marginalized or
socially excluded youth, minority or indigenous groups, young girls and women, or else they
have a geographic focus, i.e. rural areas or urban slum dwellings. They deal with a wide range
of specific issues, such as vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, drug dependency, teenage pregnancy
and they attempt to do this within a holistic framework of self-empowerment or self-reliance.
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3.4.2 Developed countries
Developed economies include the promotion of youth employment in their active
labour market policies. They offer placement services, short-term training courses, subsidies
for enterprises employing young people, and in recent years also the promotion of self-
employment and small enterprise start-up. Young people who have had at least one job can
use unemployment benefits for their start-up capital.
Another approach that is becoming more common is to promote small enterprises as
employment generators and as vocational training providers. Enterprises play the key role in
reducing youth unemployment and the promotion of SMEs therefore favours youth
employment.
A recent phenomenon is the launch of programmes that specifically target potential
entrepreneurs who are still in higher education. This is now quite common in the United
States and the United Kingdom, as well as in France and Germany. Other programmes target
unemployed diploma holders, offering a systematic form of contact and support to young
people who have finished their education and training and have not found work.
NGOs, foundations and Chambers of Commerce implement a large number of
programmes aiming to help young people create their own business. Worldwide junior
chambers of entrepreneurs such as the Junior Chamber International or the Young
Entrepreneurs of Europe help young people become entrepreneurs and coach them during the
start-up phase.
Bridging the gap between young business starters who need loans and banks which
may grant them is the objective of Youth Business International set up by the Prince’s Trust
in the United Kingdom in 1983. This successful programme also operates in transition
countries and developing countries.
3.4.3 Transition countries
The restructuring of economies based on central planning and state-owned large
enterprises led to huge unemployment but also to the emergence of a micro- and small
enterprise sector often operating in the informal economy. This sector now accounts for the
largest share of employment, and policies and programmes that promote enterprise
development are widespread. Governments are learning from experience gained in Western
Europe and North America and adapting Western approaches with the help of technical
cooperation programmes and international NGOs. National NGOs continues to give
assistance in enterprise creation to youth and other specific target groups. ILO’s
entrepreneurship training concept Start and Improve Your Business is largely used in the
Balkans, the CIS and the Central Asian Republics. In some countries the National
Employment Service uses the training model in the framework of active labour market
measures.
Entrepreneurship training, mentorship, counselling, business clubs and start-up
financing programmes are quite common in all these countries. However, outreach is still
quite limited due to the high rate of youth unemployment and the scarcity of resources.
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3.4.4 Developing countries
The vulnerability of young people is an increasingly widespread problem in developed
countries, particularly in lagging economic regions where traditional labour markets are
shrinking and skills no longer match labour market requirements. Being able to make
decisions and choices on career options and life paths is the key to self-respect, dignity and
poverty reduction. However in some circumstances, education in itself is not a solution,
especially if it is not relevant to the real life income-earning strategies of young people living
in poverty, enabling them to become self-reliant and to manage their own lives.
A number of programmes have appeared over the last two decades recognizing the
needs of young people who would like to explore entrepreneurship or self-employment as a
career option. There are also programmes for young people who have slipped through the
education net. Employment opportunities in the formal economy (in countries where it is
well-developed) may be limited and young people who have initiated their own income-
generation activities in the informal economy may have encountered obstacles in formalizing
their venture because they lack access to business advice and finance. Through many
programmes, young people learn job search skills, find employment and training
opportunities and gain work experience, benefiting from the mentor’s knowledge, resources
and community connections. Private NGOs, foundations, workers’ associations and
federations, and international technical assistance partners are playing a central role.
Most enterprise and entrepreneurship promotion programmes are open to all young
people, whether they are currently self-employed or wish to set up their own business as
entrepreneurs. The ILO Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme does not
specially target youth; nevertheless 40 to 50 per cent of training participants are under 25 and
approximately half are women.
The Commonwealth Organisation, through the Commonwealth Youth Programme,
has launched a Credit Initiative (CYCI) which is a small enterprise scheme providing small-
scale loans, training and enterprise development to unemployed people with a business idea.
CYCI provides these services using low interest rates; low training costs; partnerships with
non-governmental organizations; peer networking to encourage saving and loan repayment;
ongoing training and monitoring of enterprise.
Private sector corporations have also launched programmes to support young
entrepreneurs. For example, Shell LiveWire is an international investment initiative launched
by Shell in 1982 in the United Kingdom. Now active in over 15 countries, this scheme targets
youths in the 16 to 29 age range with an idea for their own business. The programme also
offers help to young entrepreneurs seeking to expand their company. Diageo, another
multinational corporation, launched the “Skills for Life” programme covering a range of
activities from raising levels of achievement in schools, to helping young people develop their
entrepreneurial skills.
Private sector banks such as Citibank are realizing the benefits of identifying young
entrepreneurs. “Banking on Enterprise” is an international initiative launched by the CitiCorps
Foundation in 1995 making small loans available to impoverished population groups around
the world to start and expand small businesses. Awards and competitions also help to target
potential entrepreneurs. The “Motorola Mission XXI” is a pro-active model programme to
develop young entrepreneurs in the application of microelectronics and telecommunications
in Latin America.
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3.5 Youth programmes for specific target groups
3.5.1 At-risk and marginalized youth
Other entrepreneurship or enterprise promotion programmes target specifically at-risk
and marginalized youth, dealing with a wide range of specific issues, such as vulnerability to
HIV/AIDS, drug dependency, teenage pregnancy. Such programmes attempt to achieve their
aims within a holistic framework of self-empowerment or self-reliance, and they usually build
on a livelihoods approach.
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A broader model has recently evolved around the concept of life
skills which encompasses the psycho-social aspects of dealing with vulnerability and poverty,
as well as training for self-employment or enterprise creation.
The Youth Outreach Programme (YOP) in Australia recruits and trains local mentors
to work intensively on a one-on-one basis with young people to help them identify their own
potential, build personal and career goals and develop links to support services. Special
consultants work with young people on individual problems when needed, providing drug and
alcohol counselling. The programme also serves as an advocate for young people in the
community and an agent for community change, using community development and liaison
activities to promote models of effective service delivery in rural areas. YOP attracts young
people because it approaches them in a flexible, non-controlling and non-threatening way.
In Sweden, the Communicare (a not-for-profit) has developed a labour market project
called “Young and One’s Own”, which began in 1993. The idea is to give young unemployed
people in the 18 to 30 age group the chance to start, run and liquidate a company through a
combination of theory, practical experience and entrepreneurial activities.
In Azerbaijan, the Center for Youth Starting Business was established in February
2001. The main goal is to bring young people together and assist them in acquiring a basic
knowledge of business before actually launching their own venture.
In India, an extremely successful model is the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST).
Launched in 1991, BYST is a public, non-profit organization targeting economically and
socially underprivileged young people with no formal education in the 18 to 35 age group.
One of the main conditions is that participants should be functionally literate. The programme
places strong emphasis on active mentorship and is implemented in partnership with
government, the corporate sector, vocational training institutes and entrepreneur training
institutions and small-scale industry associations in India.
In South Africa, the Centre for Education and Enterprise Development (CEED) is a
not-for profit organization established in response to the problems faced by black youth in the
communities south of Durban, which have minimal resources for young people. Programmes
initially focused on life skills and vocational guidance. However, as the needs of youth in
both the community and the broader environment changed, CEED shifted its focus to
unemployment issues in urban areas. In an attempt to increase young people’s access to
training and the SME sector, CEED has established branches in the Durban Metro Region, in
the Ugu Region and Uthungulu Region.
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There is a broad and interrelated set of programmes and policies that include: giving youth salaried jobs and
other opportunities to earn income; providing credit, savings and other financial services and related training in
job and business skills; developing institutions, alliances and networks for youth to advance their economic
interests; and promoting policy and social changes that improve young people’s livelihood prospects.
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The Joint Enrichment Project (JEP) in South Africa was founded in 1986 by the South
African Council of Churches (SACC) and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference
(SACBC) in response to the alienation of black youth from the disintegrating education
system. The JEP is a national youth development organization based in Gauteng Province.
Since its establishment, the JEP has initiated a range of pilot programmes investigating ways
of providing young people with technical training, restoring self-confidence and self-esteem,
teaching the ethic and discipline of work, coping with post-traumatic stress and the legacy of
violence, developing positive peer culture and fundamentally remedying the skills and
knowledge deficit left by apartheid.
In Zambia, the DAPP Children’s Town is an outcome of the USAID Rural Youth
Initiative. Children’s Town was created in collaboration with the International Youth
Foundation in Chalambanyama, Zambia in 1990 to provide a home, school and training centre
for vulnerable children in the marginalized, rural Chibombo District. More specifically, the
target group includes AIDS orphans, former street children and local at-risk children. The
programme provides vocational and life skills training, games and recreational activities
designed to improve decision-making skills, and activities to improve self-esteem,
interpersonal skills, a sense of personal responsibility, enhanced family relations,
employability and knowledge of rights. The age of the target group ranges from 8 to 20, 55
per cent of whom are male. These groups are involved in producing food, maintaining
programme facilities and generating income through selling farm produce.
3.5.2 Rural areas
In developing and transition countries, the majority of the population still live in rural
areas and the local economy is based on agriculture and agribusiness. Rural areas have been
particularly affected by economic changes over the past two decades. For example in Zambia,
after 1992 the government decided that it would no longer set prices for farmers and withdrew
completely from agricultural marketing. The government also withdrew subsidies and credit
for the production of the major crop – maize. As result, 90 per cent of farmers, who were
solely dependent on maize production, now had to source their own inputs, price their
produce and identify markets if they were to stay in business. Since then, poverty in rural
households and urban drift has been on the increase.
The continuing pace of rural-urban migration throughout the world has aroused the
concern of governments. Youth in rural areas, whether in developed, developing or transition
countries, are more restricted than their urban peers in terms of access to and choice of
education, training and employment opportunities. Geographical dispersion not only limits
physical access to opportunities, but leads to dispersion of relevant information: i.e.,
information on courses, youth initiatives, scholarships, etc. Many young people leave in
search of work in urban areas, while those that stay are at risk of becoming transient or
homeless if they do not find work. They may drift into criminality, substance abuse or other
problems.
In Australia, the Youth Outreach Programme (YOP) uses an innovative mentoring
model to provide at-risk young people in Western Australia with links, opportunities and
supports in education, employment and training, while addressing personal needs such as
accommodation, financial security, family mediation and counselling. In collaboration with
its young clients, their families and the local community, it tries to address the issues young
people face in a holistic manner.
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In Slovenia, the Country Springs project was established in October 2001 within the
framework of the national policy “Developing Entrepreneurship and Creativity Among
Young People”. This programme targets school leavers and unemployed youth in rural areas
and aims to identify business opportunities for young people who have taken over farms or
are potential managers in the rural economy or in agriculture-related business. As part of the
project, various motivation activities are carried out, as well as workshops, special training
programmes and the creation of a database of business information following the “one-stop-
shop” principle.
In India, the Directorate of Rural Development and District Rural Development
Agency has created a programme (TRYSEM) focusing on training rural youth for self-
employment. All trainees are from families living below the poverty line, with priority given
to those from the officially defined poorest stratum. At least 30 per cent of beneficiaries are
from Scheduled Castes and Tribes and 33 per cent are female. Ex-bonded labourers and the
handicapped are also targeted. The “Skills Development for Self-Reliance” (SDSR)
programme is part of ongoing efforts by the ILO, UNDP and SIDA to overcome the
weaknesses of rural training in Africa. In Kenya, this has developed into the Kenya Youth
Training and Employment Creation Project (KYTEC). KYTEC seeks not only to increase the
(self) employment opportunities of rural youth, but also aims at the reorientation of Youth
Polytechnics throughout Kenya towards this goal.
In Paraguay, most residents live in rural areas and schooling is severely limited.
Peasant farmers often rely upon a single crop, exhausting the land and forcing family
members to seek work elsewhere. In response, CECTEC, a non-profit rural development and
education institution, founded Educación y Capacitación de Jóvenes Campesinos [ECJC]
(Education and Training for Rural Youth) in 1986. A residential agricultural school for the
children of peasant farmers in Itapua, Paraguay, ECJC develops the capacities of rural youth
and improves their employment prospects within their communities. The programme
combines theoretical and technical training at the school with work on the families’ farms and
in the community. Students, aged 14 to 19, divide their time between campus and home. They
plan strategies and conduct projects on their families’ farms and offer their skills locally, such
as giving veterinary aid to farmers. Many of the 200 graduates have remained in the rural
areas. To broaden its impact, CECTEC provides assistance to other agricultural schools in
Paraguay wishing to adapt its model.
In the Philippines, the Agro-Mechanical Training and Entrepreneurship for Rural
Youth Project was launched in 1999 at the Don Bosco Training Centre and is being
implemented with the framework of the Global Alliance for Youth Development. It is a
mechanical skills training programme focused on promoting skills in repair, maintenance and
fabrication of small farm machinery. The trainees are out-of-school boys between 17 and 22
who come from small farming families and communities. The project also engages these
young boys in the establishment, management and operation of local agro-service centres.
The project has already established working relationships with a number of companies in the
Philippines where trainees are placed for employment after graduation. The development of
the curriculum and machine prototypes is a joint effort between the Don Bosco Technical
School, the International Rice Research Institute and PhilRice, a government company that
links agricultural manufacturing companies with farmers’ cooperatives. The government’s
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority provided the initial laboratory
equipment. The recruitment of the trainees is facilitated by the Social Action Centre of the
Philippines and the local government of Llanera, a beneficiary community.
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In Thailand, the Rural Career Programme is a focus programme of the Global
Partnership for Youth Development. Implemented by the National Council for Youth
Development, the project has leveraged ideas and resources from the International Youth
Foundation, Shell International, the Thai Government, local partners and communities to
create non-traditional career options for youth returning from urban areas following the
decline of Thailand’s economy.
In Zambia, the Agribusiness Association of Zambia was launched in 1998 by a group
of final year students at the School of Agriculture of the University of Zambia. They launched
an organization called the Potential Agribusiness Association of Zambia (PAAZ) to promote
agriculture as a business. The organization provides training in use of the Internet to women
and youth whose livelihoods depend entirely on farming. PAAZ provides a nerve centre for
marketing and production information on alternative agricultural enterprises that are suitable
for small-scale farming. The organization trains resource-poor farmers in enterprise
management and entrepreneurship skills and links farmers to micro-financing institutions,
out-grower schemes and agribusiness companies. Achievements to date include: a feasibility
study on alternatives to maize production which were promoted to farmers through field
demonstrations in four districts; the creation of information centres in two districts with
access to Internet, telephones and faxes where farmers can find out market prices and
opportunities; the establishment of ten youth and women cooperative shops in Lusaka and
Chibombo district; the publication of a quarterly newsletter in a variety of local languages and
activities to build membership, which now stands at 2,000 smallholder farmers.
3.5.3 Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
Information and communication technologies are permeating all aspects of business
and wider society and are emerging as one of the key drivers of economic growth and wealth
creation. By reducing costs and increasing the speed of communications, they have already
played a major role in globalizing the production of goods, the provision of services and the
operation of financial markets. Their broader application is having a dramatic impact on
employment patterns and skill requirements, generating new sources of employment such as
wireless technology, web-based enterprise and business services, e-commerce, e-education
and e-health.
In Finland, the “Entrepreneurship in Cyberspace” project maximizes the potential of
ICTs for education and training purposes. This is a distance education programme
implemented at the upper secondary school level (DIEPES) as part of a larger distance
education project. The programme provides a flexible way of studying for budding
entrepreneurs who are working at the same time. The primary target group is composed of
entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs. The reasons for setting up the programme were to
provide new skills and knowledge in a way that would be available to everyone irrespective
of time and place. The programme is run on the Internet (information, readings, exams,
literature, reviews) but also uses radio programmes.
Outside the urban areas in most developing and transition countries, the
communications infrastructure is usually poor with few telephone lines and even fewer
computers. Electricity supply may be sporadic. Internet access is difficult and expensive, even
in urban areas. The lack of information and communication infrastructure results in the
marginalization of rural communities. Young entrepreneurs are unable to access information
when they need it.
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In Poland, the “Young Minds in Motion” programme sponsored by Microsoft
demonstrates how educational investments by a global company are helping to leverage
government and community partnerships in a resource-poor region, where civil society, self-
help and volunteerism are only just taking root. The project builds on work already carried out
by the World Bank and the International Youth Foundation to make ICTs available in rural
areas throughout Poland.
The lack of access to information affects the rural poor more than any other sector of
society. In particular, the lack of market information (on commodity prices, suppliers, etc.)
leads to loss of income and exploitation of rural entrepreneurs by middlemen. In Zambia, the
“Internet for Agribusiness Pilot”, funded by USAID, is a programme designed to assist young
Zambian farming entrepreneurs to learn how to use the Internet effectively as a business
decision-making tool and to disseminate knowledge through farming associations and
communities. The Leland Initiative from the USAID/Africa Bureau installed hardware and
provided technical training for the national officers and rural district offices of the Zambia
National Farmers Union (ZNFU). Pilot activities included designing, developing and
conducting applied training for the ZNFU staff.
The Zahedan IT Centre is located in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in Iran, which
despite great potential and ethnic diversity, ranks last on almost every development indicator
among Iran’s 28 provinces. The Zahedan IT Centre takes information and communication
technology to one of the most remote areas of the country. The Zahedan IT Centre was
opened in February 2002 after more than a year of planning, focused on conducting needs
assessments and developing partnerships. The Centre will provide ongoing training in
information technology to the local population, but will especially target youth and women.
The Centre will also administer a robotics programme targeting youth.
To address the needs of low-skilled workers, and especially female heads of
household, an e-shop will be established through the Zahedan IT Centre, where the local
handicrafts of Blanch women will be made available on the Internet to an international
market. Blanch needlework is one of the most beautiful crafts of Iran. But because of the time
and labour involved, and the low compensation, it is also a dying craft. The Zahedan e-shop
will transfer profits from the sale of these products directly to the producers. Through this
project, women producers will eventually be trained to manage the e-shop and market their
own products. The project will also implement an IT micro-enterprise programme for youth,
which will provide small loans to young entrepreneurs seeking to start IT businesses. Those
interested in competing for loans will also be provided with intensive management training
courses.
In India, the Drishtee (Information Kiosks in Rural India) is a platform for rural
networking and marketing services for enabling e-governance, education and health services.
It runs with software that facilitates communication and information exchange within a local
intranet between villages and a district centre. The information kiosk is supplemented with a
number of services including applications, land records and online grievances. Local villagers
facilitate the services provided through Drishtee and they become kiosk owners, financed by
government schemes. Local rural youth receive training to assist these entrepreneurs without
a stipend or salary. Ninety kiosks are now operating in five Indian states. It is planned that
50,000 villagers will become kiosk owners over the next six years.
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3.5.4 Environment and community
Historically, employment creation throughout the world has been negligent of its
environmental impacts. This is beginning to change. Certain programmes have evolved in
recent years to promote greater awareness and understanding among youth of how enterprises
affect the local environment and community.
The former attempt to raise awareness of the importance of instruments such as
Agenda 21, the Earth Charter and other environmental goals while, at the same time
generating jobs and livelihoods with an emphasis on environmental protection. The Plan of
Action of the World Summit on Social Development stated:
Promoting patterns of economic growth that maximise employment creation
requires….maximising the job creation potential inherent in Agenda 21 through the
conservation and management of natural resources, the promotion of alternative livelihoods
in fragile ecosystems and the rehabilitation and regeneration of critically affected and
vulnerable land areas and natural resources….
One international initiative is the “Promotion of Youth-Led Enterprises in Off-Grid
Renewable Energy”. This programme is being implemented by the World Bank with the
Education Development Centre, Inc. (USA) as the implementing agency in collaboration with
the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (India) and TakingItGlobal, Canada. The
objective of the initiative is to link the production and promotion of renewable energy with
employment opportunities for youth.
In the United States, “Dream it. Do it” is a joint project of Juniorjobs.com and Youth
Venture to promote social entrepreneurship among young people aged 13 to 20. Together,
these organizations are providing opportunities for job-seeking teenagers to become Youth
Venturers and launch clubs, organizations or businesses that benefit their communities. The
partnership will offer youth the support they need to create, launch and lead their own
enterprise including materials, technical allies, media opportunities, national recognition,
workshops, training, a Venturers-only web site and up to $1,000 in start-up seed money.
The Fund for Social Entrepreneurs in the United States is a nation-wide programme
providing youths with start-up funds, professional management and leadership development,
technical assistance, and mentoring services. The programme was launched by Youth Service
America (YSA). Each year, YSA conducts a national search and chooses five to seven
entrepreneurs from a national applicant pool to join a class of YSA social entrepreneurs for a
three-year period. Social entrepreneurs also receive two-year living and programme seed
grants, computer assistance, and conference attendance reimbursement in the first two years.
The fund took on its first class of social entrepreneurs in April 1995, a second class in May
1996, and a third in June 1997. YSA also has a tradition of assisting up-and-coming
organizations in the national and community service field and leadership training and
programming through the New Generation Training Program, Youth Action Council, and
National Service Seminar.
Other projects serve as a catalyst for permanent social change, economic development
and community empowerment for youth and their families. In the United States, for example,
The Entrepreneurial Development Institute (TEDI) was established in 1991 as a national non-
profit dedicated to enabling disadvantaged youth, aged 7 to 21, to develop small businesses,
avoid drugs and crime, sharpen their academic skills and form positive attitudes about
themselves and their communities.
37
In India, the Barefoot College, created in 1972, is a leader in sustainable community
development. The College has trained barefoot teachers, doctors, solar engineers, hand-pump
mechanics, designers, chemists, communicators and accountants. It has created a non-formal
education process for children and adults, which assists students to develop a sustainable
community.
3.5.5 Women
Women account for nearly two-thirds of the almost one billion illiterate adults around
the world (The World Bank, Annual Report 2002). Of the 100 million children in the world
without access to primary education, 60 per cent are girls.
29
Young women are often unable to
take advantage of education and training opportunities due to barriers to entry and gender
biases in recruitment. They may lack information on health care and services and be unaware
of their legal rights. Gender-based stereotypes continue in many countries and role models
that could lead young women into challenging careers are scarce. In many countries, women
are still not going into the professions traditionally dominated by men. Therefore the type of
education and training is crucial.
The philosophy of many programmes created in recent years in the non-formal sector
is simply to help women help themselves economically. If this can be achieved there is a
measurable, positive impact on children and living standards. The programmes empower
women by increasing their ability to make money, which, in turn, improves their social
standing in the household and community.
In Chile, the Centre for Educational Research and Development (CIDE) has been
providing training to women in urban and rural areas since the 1970s and has so far reached
over 6,000 socially disadvantaged youth and women in the shanty-towns of Chile’s main
cities. The Centre trains artisans and women who CIDE provides with basic pedagogical
skills.
In Sri Lanka, the Small Enterprise Promotion Programme aims to motivate, support
and assist women in selecting appropriate self-employment, impart the basic skills women
need to manage small businesses, provide opportunities for housewives to supplement low
family incomes and improve the living standards of the poorest of the poor. The project is
supported by the Sri Lankan Women’s Bureau which was established in 1978 and now
advises both government and NGOs on all matters relating to women’s development.
At the international level, the objective of Save the Children’s micro finance
programmes is to build sustainable institutions that provide ongoing access to financial
services for poor female micro entrepreneurs. Save the Children works with credible local
partners to build their capacity both technically and institutionally.
3.5.6 Vulnerability due to drug abuse or sexually transmitted diseases
Young people misuse drugs to escape reality, out of boredom or curiosity, to relieve
hunger, to rebel, to get the courage required for begging or commercial sex, to keep awake or
go to sleep, according to a report by the World Health Organization.
In India, the Drug Abuse Prevention Programme in Asia for Marginalized Youth
(DAPPA), is implemented by UNESCO in collaboration with the European Commission. The
programme uses skills-based non-formal education to reach vulnerable young people at risk
29
Source: UNESCO web site, 2002.
38
of drug misuse and HIV/AIDS, particularly in marginalized settings such as slum dwellings
and low income communities.
The Mukti Sadana project in the slums of Mumbai has targeted 22 unemployed young
people and recovering drug users and is helping them to acquire engineering skills, business
know-how and the self-confidence to achieve economic independence. The idea behind the
project, run by the Mukti Sadana (an NGO) in collaboration with UNESCO, is an example of
a package of support that is designed to help young people get back on their feet. It includes
detoxification through counselling, basic education and training. Over an 18-month period,
the trainees learn to operate machinery in a fabrication unit set up by the project to
manufacture simple components needed by local industries. After completion of the first three
months, they are paid a small salary based on their motivation for the next six-month period.
They then progress to running the machine shop, taking orders and creating a profit sharing
scheme, using their newly acquired functional literacy skills. Some trainees are placed in local
businesses; others start their own companies. They receive extra training in basic business
management and participate in micro-credit saving schemes involving local youth and
community groups.
3.5.7 Religious/indigenous/minority groups
In Australia, the Body Shop has worked in partnership with the Commonwealth Youth
Bureau, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and the
Commonwealth Youth Program (CYP) since 1994 to hold a series of workshops that develop
the business skills of young indigenous entrepreneurs from Australia and the South Pacific.
The workshops have provided the incentive necessary for many young people to start a
business, as well as assisting those already in business to reach for further opportunities. The
workshops create an environment where budding entrepreneurs can discuss, debate and reflect
on how to engage in business formation in the company of experts who can advise and assist
with practical ideas and options.
3.5.8 Un- and under-employed diploma holders
Several programmes have evolved that target unemployed diploma holders. For
example, the FATE Foundation in Nigeria is committed to helping university graduates start
and expand their own business. The Foundation has launched a programme for aspiring
entrepreneurs. Enrolled participants benefit from a mentor programme, business library,
computer centre, consulting service, internship programme, business plan competition and
investors’ forum. A number of alumni services are also provided including a loan support
scheme and business incubator.
In South Africa, the Technopreneur Project was launched by the Ntsika Enterprise
Promotion Agency (established by the Department of Trade and Industry). Now implemented
in approximately 20 per cent of township colleges, this project targets graduates and offers
market-needs analysis, technical and entrepreneurial training, credit, work facilities,
mentoring and follow-up services.
3.5.9 Children in post-crisis situations
In many countries, the demand for rurally based and rurally oriented training is made
more acute by the presence of large numbers of displaced peoples and refugees. Here,
children and youth face heightened vulnerability and there are few prospects for waged
employment.
39
In Bosnia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has
launched a series of seminars aimed at teaching students the entrepreneurial skills necessary
to start their own small business. The “Youth and Entrepreneurship in Bosnia and
Herzegovina” project targets unemployed school leavers and at-risk youth and aims to
promote the concept and role of entrepreneurship in society by providing information about
the current economic climate, introducing basic elements of entrepreneurial thinking and
opening a space for discussion about the role of micro-enterprise in a changing economy.
In Croatia, information technology and communications skills for refugees are being
improved with the assistance of Microsoft Croatia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) and other partners. The training programme’s main aim is to provide participants
with the basic IT skills that will enable them to find jobs in the new economy. The top
candidates go on to receive advanced IT training through a Certified Technical Education
Centre (CTEC) partnering the initiative.
In the Sudan, the Refugee and Sudanese Training Programme (RSTP) is a German-
aided (GTZ) project which seeks to address the needs of both local and refugee communities
in Eastern and Southern Sudan and aims at “sponsoring vocational training and women’s
activities for refugees and Sudanese with the objective of providing skills which lead to
employment and income-generation or income saving”.
40
4. Impact and potential for replication
4.1 Impact of enterprise education
It is reasonable to ask whether the increased availability of entrepreneurial education
has made an impact on the entrepreneurial inclinations of the people who take part in these
courses. Measuring the success of entrepreneurship and enterprise education programmes is,
however, a major challenge. Few tracer studies are available for either the formal or the
informal sector, i.e. tracing graduates of enterprise education and self-employment
programmes to see whether they have become business owners or gone into self-employment.
Tracing the effect on business start-up is a long-term goal since opportunities or aspirations
often take many years to come to fruition. Both are time consuming and costly. In fact, one of
the strongest messages to emerge from the study is the time dimension for learning about
enterprise. This is true of early school-leavers as well as for those who continue with
education and even enter wage employment before they turn to their own work.
In terms of quantifiable indicators, for the moment we can only really measure impact
in terms of number of schools, teachers and learners involved over a certain time period, the
number of young people trained or loans disbursed, and the number of new businesses created
within the immediate follow-up period (although, again, there are few tracer studies to see
how many of these businesses survive after the critical 3-year period).
At the forum on “Training for Entrepreneurship” held in Sophia Antipolis in October
2000, the participants stated that in assessing the impact of entrepreneurship education and
training, attention should not only be restricted to the business birth rate, which would be a
long-term result, but also on behavioural attitudes and on the development of a more
entrepreneurial culture. In terms of overall impact on the development of the individual, one
can also consider impact on education of children, health and the environment.
Secondary level
Although there is much anecdotal evidence supporting the positive effects of
entrepreneurship education at the secondary school level, there has been limited empirical
research and few of the programmes described in this report offer information on impact. The
information available was mostly restricted to statistics on the number of learners reached
over a certain time period. Added to this, the effect of interventions would only generally be
felt after a period of 5 to 10 years as most young people who wish to go into business usually
begin with a period of waged employment.
Measuring the impact at secondary level is difficult since most pupils who are
thinking of starting their own business may wait for 5 to 10 years before doing so. Young
people usually go into employment immediately after leaving school/college and only think
about starting their own businesses in their mid-twenties (at the earliest), when they have
acquired some life and business experience. At this level of education, impact assessment is
therefore partly perception based, involving teachers, school principals and students. It is also
useful to talk to employers about whether they believe the attitude of the young people
coming to them for work experience has changed over the project period.
Having said this, the University of Durham Business School suggests that the overall
effectiveness of embedding enterprise education into the educational system can begin to be
measured immediately by asking some or all of the following questions. For example:
41
• How many schools are involved? Over what geographical area?
• How many teachers are involved?
• Has enterprise education been integrated into the curriculum?
• Is there a named contact for enterprise education in each school?
• Do parents and employers understand and support enterprise education?
• Are local partners supporting the process?
• How will the programme be sustained financially?
• To what extent has the Ministry of Education integrated enterprise education into
any educational reform?
Key indicators such as those mentioned below are also used as short-term monitors of
the overall success of the project.
• Long term commitment from local partners who have the power to influence and
make decisions
• Support from the Ministry of Education
• The incorporation of enterprise into the school curriculum
• The participation of teachers who are motivated and possess some key qualities
• Integration with other programmes of development in the region
• Long-term dissemination plans
• The availability of funding for dissemination and support
In terms of the number of schools involved and the socio-economic impact, the
success of a number of interventions at secondary level can be cited. The Youth Tech
Entrepreneurs (YTE), implemented in the Boston region of the United States involves 400+
students at eight high schools. All 18 members of the first YTE ‘graduating class’ are now in
four-year university programmes. This is remarkable in that a number of these participants
had made it clear when they first enrolled in YTE that they could not envision themselves at
university, or pursuing any form of post-secondary education. YTE cites a second, more
anecdotal benefit: positive feedback from participating high schools’ communities (including
a number of positive press articles), for the community service projects themselves, and some
shift in the perceptions of high school students from negative to positive. The programme’s
reputation has been so good that community organizations seek out YTE for assistance with
projects. YTE emphasizes the role of the community organization as the client, with a focus
on the importance of consistency. YTE coordinates a ‘teacher-to-teacher’ hotline so that
current YTE teachers can mentor new or prospective ones. Many of YTE’s corporate
sponsors (such as Raytheon and Hitachi) have high tech connections, and are attracted to the
programme because of their desire for a technologically skilled workforce.
YES (Ireland) has been running for 12 years and has evoked extremely positive
responses from school principals, teachers, parents and students. To date, about 60,000
students have participated in YES. Most participating schools secure external sponsorship,
ranging from €50 (about US$50) to €500 (about US$500), as prizes for their in-school
competitions. Members of the business community, both local and national, have acted as
judges and sponsors. Universally, the feedback on YES has been extremely positive and
supportive.
In Italy, in 1999, the Marco Polo project involved a number of the schools in different
cities, reaching some 2,200 students who were about to enter the labour market. The second
phase of the Marco Polo project targeted 26 secondary schools, around 100 teachers, 2,200
42
students and 478 enterprises. The project has also engaged the active support of many of the
region’s enterprises, making them more aware of the advantages of encouraging effective
training of this sort. It also included the diffusion of enterprise culture amongst schoolteachers
through training and placement in companies.
Vocational level
Measuring qualitative impact is difficult. Though not all entrepreneurship students at
vocational level will eventually move to self-employment, there is still evidence that these
courses are effective in providing a better understanding of enterprise culture and in
improving their knowledge of enterprise and entrepreneurship through practice.
Entrepreneurial training also has an effect in terms of the better integration of students into
the labour market and improving the confidence of target groups with particular difficulties.
Few tracer studies have sought to measure the impact of training for entrepreneurship
and self-employment through technical and vocational education. However, most
programmes have a delayed impact. There is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that
the most successful informal sector actors are often those who have entered the sector after a
combination of training plus a substantial period of employment in the formal sector (e.g.
Grierson; Mead and Kunjeku).
30
University level
In the United States, a survey was carried out on the graduates of a mid-sized
university (Wichita) in order to examine not only the actual entrepreneurial activity associated
with entrepreneurship education, but the effects on intent to open a business for potential
entrepreneurs.
31
The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions was examined
by surveying three groups of graduates: entrepreneurship majors, non-entrepreneurship
business majors, and non-business majors. The research questionnaire was distributed to 84
graduates who had earned undergraduate entrepreneurship degrees within the last 8 years.
Comparison groups were randomly selected from graduates in the same time period. The
hypotheses were that: 1) entrepreneurship graduates will own more businesses than either of
the other two groups; 2) entrepreneurship graduates will express more confidence in their
ability to open and run a new business than either of the other two groups; and 3) more
entrepreneurship graduates will express the intent to open a new business than either of the
other two groups.
Hypothesis 1 was partially supported – entrepreneurship majors have opened more
businesses than other business majors and non-business graduates, though the difference was
statistically significant (marginally) only between entrepreneurship and non-business majors.
Hypothesis 3 was also supported – more entrepreneurship graduates intend to open a business
within two to five years. However, neither personal general efficiency nor entrepreneurial
efficiency was associated with intent to open a business or actual ownership.
A second study, conducted by the Eller College of Business and Public Administration
at the University of Arizona (UA) and the Kaufmann Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership,
30
Education and training for the informal sector – Education research paper No. 11, Department for International
Development, 1994.
31
Contact: Terry W. Noel, Centre for Entrepreneurship, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260-0147; (T)
316-978-5175; (F) 316-978-3687.
43
Kansas City, revealed that entrepreneurship education programme alumni, in comparison to
business school alumni, are three times more likely to start new businesses, three times more
likely to be self-employed, have annual incomes that are 27 per cent higher, own 62 per cent
more assets and are more satisfied with their jobs. The researchers, Charney and Libecap,
surveyed 2,484 Eller College alumni, including 460 who were graduates of the Berger
Entrepreneurship Program. Also surveyed were department heads and other administrators
from the University of Arizona (including the Office of Technology Transfer), the UA
Foundation and the Eller College dean.
The study also found a variance between the growth rates of entrepreneurship
graduates and other alumni’s firms, regardless of whether the graduates were employees or
owners. On average, small firms employing entrepreneurship graduates had greater sales and
employment growth than those that employed non-entrepreneurship graduates. Finally, the
study found that entrepreneurship graduates either founded or worked for high-technology
firms in greater numbers than other business school alumni. Additionally, they are more
involved in new product development and research and development activities, and work with
products having shorter life spans.
Non-formal education level
Many NGO micro-enterprise programmes in the past have experienced high dropout
rates, perhaps because they provided young people with goods and services (food, education,
health support, recreation, etc.) but did not foster independence in the long term. There are
few role models in developing and transition countries and unemployed youth do not realize
the full degree of discipline and tenacity needed to start a business. This leads to high
enrolment rates for youth entrepreneurship schemes but high dropout once the participants
realize what is involved.
Nevertheless, certain programmes have developed successful methodologies that
revolve around an integrated programme of assistance with a proven impact on business start-
ups and self-employment rates.
The Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative Asia project had given over 1,000 loans
by March 2000, with a recovery rate of over 85 per cent. More than 800 enterprises have been
set up and about half the beneficiaries are women. The experience of CYCI has contributed to
greater interest in micro-credit and sustainable livelihoods for young people. The Guyana
CYCI pilot was featured as a model of best practice in a 1999 BBC television programme
called “Hands On”. Agencies such as UNICEF, CIDA/IDRC and others have adopted CYCI’s
approach. CYP is attempting to build on the Youth Credit Initiative with Micro-Credit
Management System, a project to help governments ensure the success of NGO-based
enterprise schemes.
The wider repercussions of entrepreneurship programmes for youth are amply
demonstrated by the BYST programme in India. Every one of the participants in the BYST
programme now have their children educated in the formal manner as compared to 67 per cent
before they started business activity. The total expenditure on education has increased for 70
per cent of the entrepreneurs. Ninety per cent of BYST entrepreneurs have reported an
increase in the average monthly income of the family thus raising their standard of living; 80
per cent have more material possessions such as a vehicle, land, electrical appliances,
furniture and household articles; 60 per cent of entrepreneurs have moved into bigger houses
of their own.
44
Programmes sponsored by the private sector have also achieved a considerable degree
of success. Shell LiveWire in Singapore is an example. In 2001 it is anticipated that 420
young people will benefit from attending “Going 4 Enterprise” workshops, 80 will attend
“Become a Successful Owner Manager” courses and 240 will attend business skill-specific
sessions. The programme aims to have three viable and sustainable businesses started by the
end of year 1. Shell Foundation funding is used to develop programmes and provide training.
The total financial support for the programme is £660,000; Shell Singapore and ITE have a
5-year commitment to the programme.
Nearly 60 per cent of Youth Business International enterprises (United Kingdom) are
still trading into their third year, a rate that compares very favourably with conventional
lending sources, despite the ‘high risk’ nature of the businesses. Each business helps to
rejuvenate its local economy and some of the largest have had a major impact. Business
survival rates have also been impressive. A significant proportion of those businesses that
ceased trading did so because the young entrepreneurs had been offered a job. The ‘top 50’
Prince’s Trust businesses have a combined turnover of £148 million and employ around 1,700
staff. The Prince’s Trust has helped 50,000 young people into self-employment since its
business start-up programme was launched in 1983. On an international level, the results of
the Prince’s Trust Youth Business Initiatives has been tremendous. By the end of 1999, over
45,000 young people had been set up in business by 12 Youth Business Initiatives. Business
survival rates have also been impressive.
In India, over the last 10 years BYST has directed over 550 job seekers into Job
Creators, providing employment to 3,500 young people. Businesses have generated an annual
turnover of Rs.110 million. Ten per cent of the entrepreneurs have become millionaires, and
15 per cent have provided employment to over 20 people. The loan recovery rate is 95 per
cent. Businesses range from traditional industry (garments, food products, handicrafts, etc.) to
hi-tech businesses (plastic moulding, computer education centres, software programming,
automotive components manufacturers, etc.).
In Trinidad, each year more than 5,000 young people participate in the SERVOL
scheme; 85 per cent complete the programme and enter the workforce. Since 1981, SERVOL
has trained more than 450 early childhood educators, 33 field officers, and 125 adolescent
instructors throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
Since 1982, Shell LiveWire programme has helped over 200,000 young people start
up in business. In the last five years it has attracted over 500 new businesses with a combined
turnover of almost £50 million. The long-term success of LiveWire and the support it has
received from businesses, communities and government has encouraged the development of a
programme framework for use in countries around the world.
Over 150 young people from nine states of India have been trained as barefoot solar
engineers through the Barefoot College. They have equipped over 2000 houses in the
Himalayas with solar electricity. Economic sustainability is achieved as people depend on and
compensate each other for their skills and services. Other types of sustainability are achieved
by using traditional media, such as puppet and street theatre, to convey messages on social
issues (minimum wage, gender equality, etc.).
45
Impact on poverty reduction
Research has shown that programmes have an impact in many different ways, not just
in terms of the number of youths reached or businesses created. There is also a more general
impact on the overall well-being of the young people taking part, their families and
communities.
The wider repercussions of entrepreneurship programmes for youth are amply
demonstrated by the BYST programme in India.
? Health
Seventy per cent of entrepreneurs and their family members in the BYST programme
now utilize private health services (which are expensive) as compared to 50 per cent earlier.
Inversely, 30 per cent of entrepreneurs and their family use government facilities as compared
to 50 per cent earlier. This shows that 20 per cent have shifted to more expensive health
services.
? Education
AIMS project research (USAID’s impact assessment project for micro finance) has
demonstrated a positive correlation between micro finance and education: Barnes, Morris and
Gaile (Uganda Study, 1998)
32
found that earnings from micro enterprises tend to be the main
source of funds for children’s education expenses. Dunn (Peru Study, 1999)
33
showed that
households of micro enterprise clients spent 20 per cent more on children’s education than
non-client households. Chen and Snodgrass (India Study, 1999)
34
confirmed that the children
of borrowers had a higher enrolment in primary and secondary schools than those of non-
borrowers.
All of the entrepreneurs in the BYST programme sent their children to private schools
as compared to 50 per cent earlier. Total expenditure on education has increased for 70 per
cent of the entrepreneurs.
? Influence on national policy
In India, the BYST programme has influenced the readiness of commercial banks to
lend money to entrepreneurs supported by programmes without security or collateral. For
example, for the year 2000-2001 budget, the Indian Finance Minister permitted all banks to
give loans worth half a million to start-up businesses without collateral and security.
4.2 Potential for replication
Programmes linked to secondary level
A number of subjects already on the secondary school curriculum appear fertile
ground for the dissemination of enterprise education concepts. Additional options towards
self-employment could include practical pre-vocational subjects such as agriculture, as well as
business studies, commerce and related courses. In all subjects there should be little difficulty
in devising modules that introduce entrepreneurial concepts to students. However, significant
changes in pupil attitudes are likely to require more than the addition of such modules.
32
An Assessment of the Impact of Microfinance Services in Uganda, AIMS, Brief No. 18, September 1998.
33
Micro Finance Clients in Lima, Peru, AIMS, Brief No. 24, June 1999.
34
Assessment of the Impact of SEWA Bank in India, AIMS, Brief No. 26, August 1999.
46
In the United States, the Youth Tech Entrepreneurs curriculum, which was developed
in conjunction with the State Department of Education, is available at no cost (as stipulated by
the Department) to all teachers who register online.
As suggested by the University of Durham Business School, introducing entrepreneurship
and enterprise education requires a close attention to fundamental elements, including the
following:
a) school administration’s support
b) government support
c) faculty/teachers’ commitment and skills
d) availability, sequencing and content of courses, curricula, and syllabi
e) availability of teaching materials including teachers’ manuals and students’
workbooks
f) students’ attitude and readiness
g) community involvement, and
h) general socio-cultural, economic, political and technological environment.
Programmes linked to TVET
Research suggests that there is no single model of the most suitable TVET response to
the pressures to reorient towards self-entrepreneurship and self-employment. Different TVET
institutions reflect different socio-economic and institutional realities and intended policy
imperatives. It will be necessary for planners at both institutional and national level to
determine the appropriate degree of self-employment focus in each situation.
In developing countries, certain methodologies such as KAB, SYB, CEFE and
EMPRETEC hold possibilities for the replication of successful practices within TVET
institutions.
In these developing countries, vocational training systems are beginning to reorient
themselves through partnerships and collaborative arrangements with overseas universities
and UN agencies which facilitate knowledge transfer and provide financial assistance. For
example, in Kenya, the Entrepreneurship Education Programme (EEP) was launched in
technical training colleges throughout the country in 1990 with the support of the
International Labour Office and the University of Illinois. The Ministry of Research,
Technical Training and Technology is responsible for implementation.
Research by DFID in the early 1990s on TVET systems in African countries
demonstrates that planning for the replication of pilot schemes of rural training is in itself
insufficient. Such a process can only succeed if the programme reflects the perceived needs of
the local institutions involved and if attention is paid to the questions of cost recovery and
sustainability. Programmes such as KYTEC, which reflect national policy objectives, are
more likely to succeed than those which seek to impose an external set of priorities on the
host country. Too often, however, a top-down strategy for national replication of pilot
schemes has been the pattern in many African countries, and this pays scant attention to the
local dimension and perspective before declaring the pilot to be nationally adopted.
The cost of reforming technical and vocational education and training can be
prohibitive, especially in developing and transition countries and in times when governments
are cutting back their financial support for education systems. Therefore, it is necessary to
look at alternative funding sources and strategic partnerships with the private sector. In
47
Africa, an illustrative case is that of Harare Polytechnic in Zimbabwe. Whilst state regulations
mean that the official courses of the Polytechnic are free, it has been able to offer evening
classes which have attracted huge numbers of working and self-employed students whilst
covering costs and partly subsidizing the day-time programme. The Engineering Department,
for instance, has had up to 700 external students enrolled on particular courses. This example
indicates that even where the state is reluctant to abandon subsidized tertiary level technical
education, there is scope for innovative methods of cost-recovery, as well as a significant
market for training. Examples of private sector sponsorship arrangements can also be found,
such as with Shell LiveWire in Singapore, launched in July 2000 in collaboration with the
Institute of Technical Education (ITE), the ITE Alumni Association and the
Technopreneurship Incubation Centre. Shell has provided a grant of £120,000 over 3 years
from 2000–2002.
Finally, in any country where the informal sector represents a large part of the
economy, TVET institutions cover only a small part of the training needs. It may be more
realistic to set up a limited number of Small Enterprise Development Institutions to prepare
entrepreneurs for the informal sector in cooperation with TVET institutions.
Such centres could act as resources for other agencies interested in entrepreneurship
development. Indeed, it is possible to envisage replication of the model of the
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI-I), which exists primarily as a
facilitator, rather than a provider of entrepreneurial development courses.
Know about Business (KAB)
Entrepreneurship Education in Vocational and Technical Training
The specific objectives of the KAB package are to:
• create awareness of enterprise and self-employment as a career option for
beneficiaries in vocational and technical training institutions;
• develop positive attitudes towards enterprise and self-employment;
• provide knowledge and practice of the required attributes and challenges
for starting and operating a successful enterprise, particularly a small
business;
• prepare beneficiaries to work productively in small and medium-sized
enterprises and more generally for an environment in which formal, full-
time wage employment may be scarce or unavailable.
The Know About Business (KAB) package comprises a set of training
materials for entrepreneurship education. The package seeks to develop
entrepreneurial skills and in the process prepare participants not only to establish their
own businesses at some point in the future but also to work productively in SMEs. In
so doing, at a broader level, the overall objective of KAB is to contribute towards the
creation of an enterprise culture.
KAB aims to enable young people to choose entrepreneurship or self-
employment as a career option. It is not intended necessarily to have young people
begin their careers as entrepreneurs or self-employed people. Rather, it is meant to
give them an awareness and some practice of the opportunities, challenges,
procedures, characteristics, attitudes and skills needed for successful entrepreneurship.
48
The KAB package was designed for use in vocational education and training
institutions. It has been put together in such a way as to allow its introduction into a
variety of classroom settings. To be effective, the entrepreneurship concepts presented
must eventually be integrated into vocational and technical programmes at all levels.
If specific characteristics are essential to success in business, then the training of
potential entrepreneurs must not wait until the latter are adults, by which time they
may have acquired many non-entrepreneurial habits.
The KAB package is addressed to trainers/teachers in vocational and technical
training institutions. The materials can be adapted for use in both industrialized and
developing countries as well as in further and higher education institutions other than
vocational and technical. It is assumed that the trainers/teachers using the materials
would typically possess a diploma or higher level education, have some technical
skills but little or no previous business/enterprise experience.
Programmes linked to universities
There are examples of cases where the introduction of entrepreneurship courses at
university level in developing and transition countries has been made possible through a
transfer of knowledge and know-how with reference to teaching and learning methodologies.
For example, the CEFE methodology conceived by GTZ has been successfully
adapted by the Philippines Institute for Small-Scale Industries at the University of the
Philippines (UP ISSI) and by Changmai University in Thailand. CEFE has also been used to
train lecturers. Other entrepreneurship and small business management models could include
those of McClelland, Management Systems International (famous for its PECs) and the SIYB
of ILO among others.
Adaptation has also been made possible through knowledge transfer between
universities. For example, the University of Maribor in Slovenia adapted one of the most
successful study programmes for managers of small and medium-sized companies in Europe,
practised at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Boras in Sweden, through a
European project (Tempus). Realization of the project is based on cooperation between the
following institutions of higher education: University College of Boras (Sweden), School of
Economics and Commercial Law, University of Gothenburg (Sweden), De Vlerick School of
Management, University of Ghent (Belgium), Faculty of Economics and Banking, University
of Udine (Italy), and Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Maribor (Slovenia).
The case of Slovenia shows that university courses can be replicated but require broad- based
partnerships between universities for transfer of know-how and teacher training.
Within universities, there are possibilities for developing entrepreneurship courses for
graduate and postgraduate students in the science, engineering and medical faculties.
However, moving towards a more entrepreneurial focus within conventional business school
structures can encounter some obstacles. Some of these problems are:
a) motivating mainstream business school staff who conventionally rely upon
functional expertise and who are oriented towards large companies, to shift their
teaching style and attitudes to research on more entrepreneurial “holistic
management” approaches;
49
b) persuading staff to study the individual entrepreneur or the micro/small enterprise,
as opposed to the managers of large firms;
c) avoiding the trap of perceiving the teaching of management in small organizations
as merely a simplistic version of teaching management of large organizations.
Experience from the Philippines on introducing entrepreneurship education at
university level revealed the following difficulties:
a) motivating students to enrol in the course
The students perceived that faculty members do not themselves have the
entrepreneurial spirit, and that they are talking only from the books. Also, students had a
negative attitude towards entrepreneurship education. They stated that entrepreneurship is not
a profession, therefore, it should not be taken as a course in college/university.
b) lack of entrepreneurship faculty
Faculty members know the subject matter of entrepreneurship and some of the
techniques, but their techniques are also limited because they have repeatedly used the same
techniques over the years. There is a lack of creativity and innovation on the part of the
faculty.
c) lack of support from the faculty
Entrepreneurship faculty members were full-time faculty members and were handling
other subjects. They had no time to devote to the practical aspect of the entrepreneurship
courses such as developing materials. There was very strong dependence on textbooks which
were patterned after the American style of teaching.
d) lack of commitment of faculty
Few faculty members volunteer to undergo training-of-trainers courses.
e) sequencing of entrepreneurship curriculum
There was a need to look at the totality of subjects in order to determine the required
prior skills and knowledge. For example, it was found that natural science subjects were
offered when students were already in their third or fourth years. Students should have
already followed their natural science courses before business planning and environmental
scanning sessions which consider environmental factors.
f) contents of the subjects were not clearly designed
Model syllabi were copied from textbooks and reference books
g) lack of teaching materials
h) lack of capital to assist the students in starting a small business
Non-formal education programmes
In the non-formal economy, it has to be recognized that youth are a heterogeneous
group in terms of economic circumstances, attitudes and behaviours. This has implications for
50
programme replication. The youngest group are more economically disadvantaged than the
others. Girls are usually more economically disadvantaged than boys, but boys are often more
subject to peer and societal pressure to engage in different types of behaviour. Programmatic
and policy responses should take this diversity into account and try to identify appropriate
opportunities for a diverse workforce, instead of trying to fit all unemployed young people
into one-size training programmes. A variety of models are needed to deal with different
students: a) skilled people needing capital b) those who are between jobs, c) survivalists.
Labour market measures should be linked to local community development and the provision
of social, health and welfare services. The individual may participate in a number of activities,
including advice, vocational education and training, as well as work experience facilitated by
different providers, but these need to be planned in an integrated and coordinated way.
Many projects have developed and evolved their own teaching and learning
methodologies, which have then been replicated within the same project framework nationally
and internationally or by other development partners elsewhere. For example, the
Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative has developed a Toolkit to assist governments,
development agencies and NGOs in the implementation of micro-credit programmes. The
heterogeneity of the needs of youth means that what works for some people will not work for
others. However, the CYCI is sufficiently flexible to meet the differing needs of a range of
users, presenting a menu of options that users can adapt to specific national and local
circumstances. The modules focus on an overview of the initiative, guidelines for
implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation, and training resources. The
estimated success rate of businesses in the scheme is 80 per cent, compared with a 10 per cent
for other businesses in the poorer Commonwealth countries.
Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB)
The programme
The Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme is a management-
training programme with a focus on starting and improving small businesses as a
strategy for creating more and better employment in developing economies and
economies in transition.
The goals
The long-term development goals of SIYB are to contribute to economic
growth in general and the creation of more and better jobs in micro and small
enterprises (MSEs) in particular.
The short-term development goals are to strengthen local business
development service (BDS) providers to deliver business management training that
will make it possible for micro and small-scale entrepreneurs to start and improve
their businesses, thereby creating sustainable jobs for themselves and others.
The history
Improve Your Business (IYB) started as a training programme – “Look After
Your Firm” – developed by the Swedish Employers’ Federation in the early 1970’s. In
1977 the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) funded a project
within the ILO that adapted the original Swedish initiative to the needs of small-scale
entrepreneurs in developing economies.
Start Your Business (SYB) was developed in 1991. Since IYB focused on
existing businesses, SYB was developed to address the needs of potential micro and
small-scale entrepreneurs who wanted to start a business, but did not know how.
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Start and Improve Your Business is today a globally recognized ILO
trademark and the programme has been introduced in more than 80 countries. SIDA
continues to be the main donor.
Implementation strategy
The programme follows an institution-building strategy by working with
existing local and national organizations. SIYB project staff train trainers from Partner
Organizations (POs) who in turn train the micro and small-scale entrepreneurs.
The cost of training trainers is covered by the SIYB project, but cost recovery
of training entrepreneurs is the responsibility of the PO. Often this is a mix between
participants’ fee and a small subsidy provided by the organization.
To ensure sustainability SIYB projects are seeking to create a market culture in
which POs charge the full cost for providing the service (i.e. training) and a culture in
which entrepreneurs are willing to make the initial investment and pay for the service
provided.
This strategy makes it possible for SIYB to reach large numbers of
entrepreneurs. When donor funding stops and pilot projects are phased out, local and
national institutions continue delivering training to entrepreneurs. National master
trainers who have been educated during the course of the project assist the POs.
The long-term success of LiveWire and the support it has received from businesses,
communities and government encouraged the development of a programme framework for
use in countries around the world. In 2001 LiveWire advised over 30,000 young
entrepreneurs and it is now operating in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Brunei, Chile, Hungary, Ireland, Mauritius, Netherlands, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sri
Lanka, United Kingdom.
Prince’s Youth Business Trust (United Kingdom) provides training and finance for
disadvantaged young people with a viable business idea in 14 countries (Argentina, Belize,
Barbados, Canada, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Mauritius, Oman, South Africa, Sri
Lanka, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago) in addition to the United Kingdom.
In the United States, The Entrepreneurial Development Institute (TEDI) has
established a consortium of youth-serving agencies for replication of its model in 18 other US
cities. It has also launched four additional direct-service branch offices in Atlanta, New
Jersey, Los Angeles and Cleveland. Founded in Washington, DC, it has recently moved its
headquarters to New York City.
Youth Business International (YBI)
YBI is a unit of The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum
that helps disadvantaged young people realize their ambitions to become
entrepreneurs.
YBI brings together people in the corporate sector, civil society and
government, who make their skills, expertise and facilities available on young people's
behalf to provide access to finance, business mentoring and support to young
entrepreneurs during the start-up and early development of their businesses.
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YBI is the coordinating body of a global network of organizations that deliver
its programme of support to young people and who share common principles and
working practices.
The YBI programme delivers a huge range of benefits, from building the
employability of young people to generating a culture of entrepreneurship and
dynamism in the local economy.
• More than 50,000 young people have been set up in business by 20 YBI
programmes around the world.
• Over 60 per cent of these young people are still successfully in business in
their third year.
Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST)
BYST is a non-profit, non-government organization launched in April 1992 by
YBI to nurture the entrepreneurial dreams of the underprivileged youth of India. It is
the only youth business initiative in the country. Its aim is to fight the two major
problems that plague Indian society: poverty and unemployment.
BYST provides financial assistance to disadvantaged youth, to start a new
business or expand an existing one. The loans are given without collateral. Mentoring
support is provided through volunteer businesspeople and professionals. It is the
pioneer of small business mentoring in the country. BYST also provides other support
services to its entrepreneurs in the form of regular training programmes, workshops
get-togethers and opportunities to display their products and services at national and
international trade fairs and exhibitions.
BYST has supported nearly 900 entrepreneurs, of whom 137 are women. The
businesses range from handicrafts to high-tech electronics. Most of them are
successful businesspeople today.
BYST has found ample support from the Indian business community. Many
industrial houses and multinational corporations are BYST partners. The
Confederation of Indian Industry (an apex national industry organization) provides
administrative support. Donations are also received from the corporate sector.
BYST has been involved in created forums to exchange best practice with
other developing countries.
The Joint Enrichment Project in South Africa has undertaken national research and
consultations on youth policy and the development of key principles for youth development.
The JEP has piloted and evolved a strategic developmental approach for youth work that takes
into account all aspects of the young person’s life. Known as the “Integrated Approach to
Youth Development” (IAYD), the approach has two components: (1) Ensuring that youth
programmes and policies address the economic, educational, social and psychological needs
of young people, and (2) Ensuring that youth development initiatives are fundamentally and
firmly linked to the broader community and societal developmental issues. The JEP has also
developed a range of training programmes directed at other service providers, change agents
and youth workers. These programmes are designed to reach more young people than the
pilot projects, through strategic partnerships with a range of institutions.
53
The Skills Development for Self-Reliance (SDSR) methodology used as part of the
KYTEC project in Kenya is also sufficiently flexible to be successfully adapted to the
particular circumstances of the project country. Whilst this is a donor-instigated project, it
explicitly aims at becoming institutionalized within local structures. It is carried out by local
staff and is located within the relevant ministry. The project is consistent with the stated
policy of the government regarding rural development and makes use of existing structures
and staff in carrying out needs surveys, training, etc. It works through existing organizations
and staff wherever possible. This has the effect of minimizing fixed costs, whilst at the same
time making the project familiar to key agents and institutions at local and national level.
In Nepal, a package was developed as part of the Small Business Promotion Project
(SBPP) – launched in October 1983 as a joint project of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal
(HMG/N) and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Due to the
success of the training, this package is now used by GTZ in over 70 countries of the
developing world and is marketed as CEFE.
The SERVOL approach used in Trinidad and Tobago has been replicated in a number
of countries throughout the region and internationally in Ireland and South Africa. In
partnership with the national government, SERVOL, a national NGO, has assisted in building
more than 40 “Adolescent Life Centres” which train young people in areas such as welding,
plumbing, woodwork, catering, geriatric nursing, and child care. Servol was responsible for
equipping the centres, which were community built.
The Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings (GGLS) is Save the Children’s principal
economic opportunities strategy. The strategy is currently being replicated in 15 countries and
territories: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon,
Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Viet Nam and West Bank/Gaza. GGLS has
particular expertise in implementing micro finance programmes in the Middle East and in
transition countries such as Afghanistan, Georgia and Tajikistan. The United Nations
Development Programme MicroStart recently selected Save the Children as its first technical
service provider for Morocco.
The Barefoot College approach has been replicated in 13 states of India, and in
Morocco. The organizers of the Barefoot College are prepared to help replicate the approach
in any country which has problems of unemployed rural youth and where there is a high rate
of illiteracy. The positive side of the coin is that there is a rich and vibrant oral tradition and
that indigenous knowledge remains to be identified and utilized. A number of lessons can be
learned from the Barefoot College experience in India. Certain conditions have to be met: 1)
The organization or institution must believe in the value of traditional knowledge and skills
and have faith in its own capacity to make use of them. If not, there is absolutely no point in
trying to replicate the practice. 2) If the organization or institution has been totally spoilt by
the presence of and dependency on urban-based, ‘paper-qualified experts’, then the Barefoot
College approach will not work. 3) The organization must be flexible, transparent and non-
hierarchical.
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5. Recommendations
5.1 Wider policy environment for youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation
Creating favourable conditions for small enterprise development among young people
begins with assessing the incentives and disincentives that economic policies may create,
perhaps unintentionally, for smaller businesses. Small enterprises must be able to make a
profit and be competitive. The first step, then, is to examine policies that do not specifically
target youth entrepreneurship but may affect it, such as the administrative and legal
procedures for business start-up, availability of finance from commercial banks, education
and skills training, social protection, gender equality and business expansion support.
National policies, particularly in developing and transition countries, need to do more
to empower and encourage public and private institutions to rethink their approach to self-
employment preparation. Governments, in consultation with employers’ associations and
workers’ organizations, are identifying skill needs. At vocational level, it is clear that a
serious national commitment to new enterprise development means far-reaching changes and
a fundamentally different kind of institution, involved not just with training but offering many
of the other services, such as credit and extension associated with SME growth.
The ILO World Employment Report 1998-99 points out that both labour market
information (LMI) and vocational guidance play influential roles, regardless of a country’s
stage of development. Improved knowledge about labour market opportunities – the nature
and location of employment, wages and working conditions and opportunities, and assistance
in using the information – are vital to improved labour market operations. LMI and vocational
guidance are especially critical for youth whose knowledge of, and exposure to the world of
work is limited.
Education and training programmes should also be reformed in a way that creates a
system of incentives to encourage the private sector to provide mentoring for young
entrepreneurs, as well as training and skills acquisition opportunities for young people.
Incentives might include: tax breaks or tax holidays, wage subsidies, preferential purchase
agreements, etc. Entrepreneurs and others from the business community (including university
alumni) should be encouraged to have a broad involvement in teaching, as guest lecturers,
subjects for case studies, mentors and even entrepreneurs-in-residence.
In line with the above, policy guidelines have been developed for entrepreneurship
promotion in different contexts. For example, youth-targeted interventions in transition
countries should draw on the lessons of the Entrepreneurship and enterprise development in
transition economies: Policy guidelines and recommendations.
35
These were developed as a
collaborative effort between UNIDO and the OECD, which organized the Forum on
Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (FEED) in 1999. The guidelines and
recommendations are intended as a general framework within which private sector
development and the promotion of SMEs can be undertaken in transition countries while, at
the same time, they recognize that different objectives, conditions, and resources in each
country require a customized approach.
Finally, in some countries, an area-based approach to youth entrepreneurship has been
receiving particular attention from policy makers. In this context, entrepreneurship
35
Available in English and Russian from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD).
55
programmes at different levels of education could be more closely integrated into broader
development frameworks and training strategies. For example, in transition countries, links
can be established between vocational education reforms and the PHARE and TACIS
Programmes.
36
The European Training Foundation, which is facilitating the reform of
vocational education in European Union member States, could be a partner organization, as
could the Business Educators Network for Entrepreneurship (BENE).
5.2 Integrating entrepreneurship education into the classroom
How can traditional secondary, vocational and university courses be modified so as to
stimulate students and trainees to think in a more entrepreneurial way? Cost is an important
element in deciding whether entrepreneurial programmes can be replicated within formal
national education systems. The cost of planning and introducing curriculum reforms,
producing materials and organizing teacher training can be prohibitive in developing and
transition countries where Ministries of Education are already overwhelmed by efforts to
achieve education for all.
Research has shown that it is possible to use different training methodologies in both
formal and non-formal sectors as a template for replication in other contexts. Funding is still a
major issue, however. Within national education systems at secondary level, governments
throughout the world are slowly making funds available for training and materials. At
vocational and university level, as well as within the non-formal sector, the challenge is to
develop self-supporting systems of operation with funds generated from fees, consultancy,
training, evaluation and research activities.
At the same time, effective programmes suggest that the key to success is creating a
classroom culture that encourages teamwork, lateral thinking, and reflective learning. Existing
enterprising practices within the learning environment should be identified and built upon.
The method used should be process based and appropriate to the backgrounds of the trainees.
Learning should be based on “appropriate technologies” that are easily available within the
locality. This covers a whole range of both traditional techniques that have been around for
centuries (such as the use of mud and clay in building, vaulted roofs and terracotta tiles) and
modern technologies (such as solar energy or wind-power). In all cases, the focus is on
ownership, which should rest with the students not the teacher; the learners must be
empowered to understand and gain confidence in their abilities, recognize how ideas might be
generated, understand how to solve problems creatively and learn how to plan and organize a
project.
The issues of replication and sustainability are therefore linked and the immediate
impact of entrepreneurship education programmes will depend not just on the ability to
finance interventions, but also on the quality of the training provision, its relevance to local
needs and its impact on the local community in terms of generating sustainable livelihoods
and self-employment opportunities, as well as overall poverty reduction.
36
The main aim of PHARE is to support these countries in the process of economic transformation and the
strengthening of democracy. For those countries which have applied to join the European Union, special efforts
are being made to assist them to reach the stage where they are ready to assume the obligations of membership.
56
Secondary level: Although not everybody can be an entrepreneur,
37
certainly
teachers, school administrators, staff and students can be trained to display the characteristics
of successful entrepreneurs, so that the ultimate result is an enterprising school environment.
Subjects already on the curriculum which are relevant to enterprise education include
social studies, geography, and history. Newer subjects such as life skills or citizenship
education are even more relevant in terms of subject matter. Additional options towards self-
employment could include practical pre-vocational subjects such as agriculture, as well as
business studies, commerce and related courses. In all subjects there should be little difficulty
in devising modules that introduce entrepreneurial concepts to students.
Pupil-centred training methodologies often involve a change in approach which meets
with initial resistance. Overcoming this may depend more on personal qualities than on
subject knowledge. If school directors are not teachers, special arrangements may be
necessary to enable them to appreciate the practical implications of curriculum reform. Where
market economics are not well understood, trainers may themselves need training in how
enterprises interact in a market economy.
Vocational level: The ILO World Employment Report 1998-99, noted that training
programmes in developing countries have often failed “because of the unfamiliar terminology
used and bureaucratic attitudes adopted – treating participants as inferior – and, most
importantly, because training is considered as a single-intervention approach”, requiring no
complementary inputs. “Lack of institutional support and credit often render the new skills
acquired through training unexploitable”. It is therefore “crucial that training not be designed
in isolation from the other necessary inputs”. “If training is complemented with credit at low
rates of interest through a decentralized system of loan delivery and collection”, the report
concludes, “it is possible to make a real difference to incomes in the informal sector”.
“[Apprenticeship] …training is important in the transfer and development of skills and
has a direct impact on productivity and therefore on income”, says the report. Entrepreneurs
in the informal sector place a high value on apprenticeship training as, apprentices often stay
on as skilled labour in their workshops. Others start small businesses of their own. “In Kenya,
with its relatively well developed formal training system, there are more apprentices enrolled
in the informal sector than trainees in the formal sector”, while “in Egypt, over 80 per cent of
crafters in the construction sector acquire their skills through traditional apprenticeship”.
Besides informal apprenticeship, government and NGO-based training programmes
also exist. Usually directed at owners or future owners of micro enterprises, these take the
form of extension services, vocational training or business management programmes. “NGOs
in particular have been in the forefront of training initiatives in the informal sector”.
“Training policy”, argues the report, “would do better to address the needs of those
already established in informal production and who require upgrading of specific skills”
through an introduction, for example, to new technologies and new products.
37
A common view is that entrepreneurs possess distinguishing personal entrepreneurial competencies (PECs)
which contribute to their success. Personal qualities and abilities such as initiative, creativity, risk taking, self-
confidence, team spirit and leadership enable the individual to be better at thinking, analysing, solving problems,
taking action and corrective measures. It is now commonly believed that these traits can be captured and
promoted through the learning process.
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In addition, “existing apprenticeship systems in the micro enterprise sector need to be
upgraded”. Successful as informal apprenticeship may have proved to be in transferring skills
from one generation to the next, “it suffers from serious problems and there is ample scope
for improvement”, says the ILO report, which goes on to identify strategies to improve the
quality of the training provided.
Certain methodologies such as CEFE (GTZ), Know Your Business (ILO) and
EMPRETEC (UNCTAD) have potential for replicating successful practices within TVET
institutions because they represent integrated packages of support. Research by the
Department for International Development (United Kingdom) on training for the informal
sector in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1990s also suggests that in order to improve the
responsiveness of vocational education and training to new labour market requirements,
reforms have to be sustained and extended with a particular view to:
- adjusting existing school infrastructures and programmes to the new economic
priorities;
- further reforming qualifications so that they correspond more closely to the needs of
the labour market;
- increasing investment in vocational education and training to promote innovation and
to ensure higher levels of participation and attainment;
- re-establishing links between education and training institutions, the world of work
and enterprises; and
- placing greater emphasis on the acquisition of transversal competencies (“core
competencies”), including technological, social, organizational, linguistic, cultural and
entrepreneurial skills, through active types of learning.
University level: Within universities, there are possibilities for developing
entrepreneurship courses for graduate and postgraduate students in the science, engineering
and medical faculties. However, moving towards a more entrepreneurial focus within
conventional business school structures can encounter some obstacles, particularly the lack of
lecturers with real experience of working as businesspeople in the commercial sector.
Non-formal level: The ILO World Employment Report 1998-99, points out that the
major challenge facing skills development training for workers in the informal economy is to
mainstream their concerns into formal training policies and systems, to upgrade the practices
of non-formal training providers, to document and develop training strategies for particular
categories of workers outside the formal labour market (e.g. those who are difficult to reach
such as home-based workers, those in micro- and family-based enterprises, seasonal workers
in the construction industry), and to establish sustainable financing mechanisms for training
the poor.
Several programmes supported by NGOs, the private sector and inter-governmental
organizations have achieved good results because they applied traditional, indigenous
knowledge and skills to solving basic problems and thus to reducing communities’
dependency on expertise from outside, which is often inappropriate and irrelevant. The low
cost of local technologies makes them easily replicable wherever similar problems exist. The
Barefoot College in India is one example of an intervention that has applied this way of
thinking. Programme success has also been based on organizing the participants into self-help
groups and peer networking.
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Programmes such as SIYB have been successful because they have adopted a low
literacy approach with class times based around the rhythms and habits of the community.
The proximity of the training centres to the target groups or the neighbourhoods to be served
is also a key element. In remote or difficult-to-reach areas, this takes the form of mobile units
or utilization of local buildings, e.g. schools or churches. All of these aspects highlight the
need to design programmes that are “youth-friendly”. It is not sufficient merely to identify
providers willing to serve youth. Rather, providers must be trained to respect young people
and their communities.
5.3 Teacher training
Secondary level
Durham University Business School (DUBS) suggests that in order to successfully
implement enterprising activities in a school, teachers must be open-minded and enthusiastic,
coming from a wide variety of teaching areas. They must be given time for discussion,
exchange of ideas and planning, as well as support and encouragement from school
management. Consequently teachers and also administrative authorities within schools should
be made aware of entrepreneurship. DUBS has identified four major areas where specific
teaching skills are required. They are: a) the classroom environment, b) managing projects, c)
understanding the learning process, and d) negotiating and involving colleagues.
Vocational level
Evidence from the KAB and SIYB programme in Central Asia also points to the
careful selection of trainers and business consultants, all of whom should be experts in their
field. The choice of trainers and agencies will vary according to the specific situation within
each country or locality.
University level
The University of Southampton (United Kingdom) carried out an evaluation of its
entrepreneurship programme in 2001. This suggested that the professional development of
lecturers is an essential part of the development of enterprising activities in schools. The
difficulty in finding appropriate trainers with first-hand experience of managing a business is
being resolved by the Centre for Enterprise at Leicester University through an exchange
programme. The programme recognizes that entrepreneurship might best be learned from
other entrepreneurs and that these rarely find the time to give seminars. The scheme therefore
offers academics the chance to change places with business people for part of the week. This
gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to work within an academic institution and to share their
experience of managing an SME with students.
5.4 Follow-up activities
The main objective of most programmes is to improve students’ skills in problem
solving, teambuilding, and communications. However the simple vision of schools forming
their pupils into young entrepreneurs through mere curricular changes is false. Graduates of
entrepreneurship, enterprise or income-generation courses need follow-up services so that
they can make the shift into the real economy.
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Secondary level
It has been argued that much could be done to promote self-employment at secondary
level through positive images of enterprise activities. Many successful programmes have
connected the school with local micro (small) businesses to inspire students to consider small
business as a genuine post-school option. Bringing self-employed people into the school as
role models and sources of information could have great benefits for student morale,
especially for girls and minority groups. Ongoing contact with an adult over an extended
period of time, including career guidance or elements of monitoring and support, is also
important.
Career guidance is already established in developed and some developing countries,
such as Botswana or Malawi. However in some of the poorer developing countries,
institutionalized career guidance is still almost non-existent. In most of the planned
economies of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and also in China, it was not a
priority until very recently, when schools had to begin to orient their leavers to a dramatically
less certain, and more diverse, work environment.
Equally problematic is relying on teachers to organize career guidance. The basic
problem is that career education has traditionally been waged employment in the modern
sector of the economy. In the poorer countries of the world there have never been enough
formal-sector jobs to justify having a career programme to discuss choice amongst them. And
as for the huge number of positions in the informal sector, these have not until recently been
considered careers worth discussion. One of the consequences of taking self-employment
seriously, however, might be much more information about informal sector ‘careers’
opportunities.
Enterprise education projects require systematic data collection and coordination to
keep track of numbers trained and of what happens to students after training. A note of
warning, however, is that the majority of existing successful entrepreneurs were not created
through such courses. Indeed, it is possible that the very cultural contexts in which such
programmes have been judged to be successful might be those which foster entrepreneurship
regardless of any such external intervention. It may be, therefore, that such programmes are
largely not replicable. However, there is a more problematic interpretation. It is possible that
there is a limit on the number of successful micro-entrepreneurs who can be supported by the
small local markets of many developing countries.
Vocational level
Research carried out by the Department for International Development (United
Kingdom) on post training follow-up in the informal sector in African countries suggests that
there is no single “correct” model for such follow-up, and some methods are clearly not cost-
effective. In a number of countries, for instance, a version of follow-up for vocational skills
training was the extension model by which trained instructors sought to keep in touch with
clients who had come into the rural industrial development centres for specific assistance. In
Kenya and Tanzania such support and follow-up proved to be very expensive and of uncertain
value. Clearly, to be successful, follow-up provision must reflect the specific needs and
characteristics of the client and be tailored to the market.
A proposal for extending the CEFE methodology in Sri Lanka suggests that upon
completion of the vocational training, selected graduates need a full-fledged support
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programme to help them start up a business. The emphasis here is on ‘selected’ graduates. It
is preferable that people gain work experience and accumulate some financial resources
before they try to start up a business of their own. These students are the most suitable
candidates for business creation and they can be expected to be more successful than the
newcomers.
In any country where the informal sector represents a large part of the economy, it
may be more realistic to seek to develop a limited number of Small Enterprise Development
Institutions to provide entrepreneurial preparation for the informal sector rather than
attempting to introduce enterprise education systematically into all TVET institutions. Such
centres could act as resources for other agencies interested in entrepreneurship development.
Indeed, it is possible to envisage replication of the model of the Entrepreneurship
Development Institute of India (EDI-I) which exists primarily as a facilitator rather than a
provider of entrepreneurial development courses.
5.5 Equality of opportunity
Young women, particularly in developing countries, are often unable to take
advantage of training opportunities due to barriers to entry, discrimination in selection and
gender stereotyping. Stereotyping is frequently found in vocational guidance and counselling
on the part of school staff or employment services, and it discourages young women from
taking training programmes that would lead them to higher long-term earnings and status. In
many countries, for example, young women are encouraged to train in household-related
work, such as food preparation and garment manufacturing, while young men are encouraged
to go for high-skill and modern technology-based training and employment. As a result, many
young women end up in relatively low-skilled and poorly paid occupations with little prospect
of upward mobility. Improved access will help increase the employability of young women. It
must be supplemented by vocational guidance better suited to their capabilities and needs, as
well as by gender-sensitive counselling and placement services to enable young women to
fulfil their potential.
5.6 Exploiting opportunities in the ICT sector
Information and communications technologies are opening up exciting new career
prospects for young people, both as employees and entrepreneurs. In some countries, young
people are already launching thousands of start-up companies that capitalize on technologies
such as wireless telephones and the Internet. In developed countries, industry experts indicate
that jobs exist in all areas of e-business including Java programming and web hosting, as well
as in business support services. In developing countries, opportunities abound for exploiting
the new technologies, offering an unprecedented chance for these countries to “leapfrog”
earlier stages of development. For these benefits to be realized, however, countries need
among other things, to expand their investment in infrastructure needed for the use of ICT and
in the education and training of young people. Such investments should be undertaken by
both the public and private sectors and make use of collaborative local, national and
international networks.
5.7 Financing
A growing trend is for international and national NGOs and businesses to provide
funding to projects, particularly in the non-formal sector. Both these development partners
provide assistance through the sponsorship of courses and promotional events, the
61
development of materials to strengthen curriculum areas, the engagement of mentors from the
local business community and by drawing the school into a broader plan for local economic
and community development.
However, programmes can be costly to set up and operate. Allocations for training
materials and business development services and experts can be substantial. Especially in
developing countries, the possibilities for cost recovery are not always obvious.
5.8 Outreach
If we want people to know about the option of self-employment and business, there is
a need for some sort of information and awareness creation. Young people need a way of
finding out whether or not self-employment or business is a sensible option for them. This
will at the same time serve as a sort of selection mechanism to identify potential future
entrepreneurs. Communication programmes play an essential role in educating, informing,
and motivating young people. Mass media and folk media in popular formats such as music,
serial dramas, and variety shows can also be employed to persuade and motivate young
audiences to engage in activities towards self-empowerment.
Another critical element is to raise awareness among local and national policy makers,
families and communities about their importance in dealing with the issues facing youth. The
support system and institutional mechanism often make or break an enterprise. Functionaries
of support institutions, be they government departments, development organizations or
financial institutions, often do not appreciate their role and that of entrepreneurs in industrial
development. There is also a need to mobilize the community to provide an enabling
environment for young people to become economically self-reliant and to raise awareness of
how the community can support the businesses that are created as a result of different
interventions.
The international community and the private sector are playing a critical role in terms
of outreach. For example, the Inter-American Development Bank programme is helping to
generate awareness among the general public, government agencies and the non-profit and
private sectors on the contributions and value of youth participation and development, best
practices and model programmes.
62
6. Conclusions
Different countries are integrating entrepreneurship and enterprise education into
different levels of education through a variety of modalities and at different speeds depending
on the availability of expertise and resources. There is no single pathway or approach and no
single intervention that can be expected to deal with the whole range of problems facing
young people. Though not all the students following these projects will eventually move to
self-employment, the projects are effective in providing a better understanding of enterprise
culture, in supplying students with skills for use in companies and in improving their
knowledge of enterprise and entrepreneurship through practice.
Given the variety of situations, and contexts in which young people find themselves,
as well as the diverse nature of the issues they are dealing with, a package of interventions is
needed. Even within the same target group, there is no “ideal” model that can deal with the
needs of all members. There will be some young people who are skilled but without capital,
others who are between jobs and others still who are survivalists.
However, seeing skills and knowledge (and particularly an increase in their supply) as
the principal point of departure for policies aimed at creating a more competitive and socially
sustainable economy would be to ignore the importance of the wider environment to the life
chances and opportunities available to young people. Schools and colleges on their own
cannot be expected to make a major contribution to a more dynamic market economy. It is
clear that different programmes are likely to succeed where the government, at local and
national levels, is already providing broad-based support to the creation of SMEs within the
framework of national enterprise policy; where local stakeholders are engaged in policy
dialogue; where market-based business support institutions and legal frameworks are evolved
and where youth as a population group are receiving targeted assistance through national
policy frameworks. Without an enabling environment, interventions can only have a short-
term effect and there is little chance of young entrepreneurs growing and surviving outside the
programme framework.
63
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65
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66
67
SEED Working Papers
1. “Home Work in Selected Latin American Countries: A Comparative Overview” (Series on
Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Manuela Tomei, 2000
2. “Homeworkers in Paraguay” (Series on Homeworkers in the Global Economy), María Victoria
Heikel, 2000
3. “Homeworkers in Peru” (Series on Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Francisco Verdera,
2000
4. “Job Quality and Small Enterprise Development” (Series on Job Quality in Micro and Small
Enterprise Development), 1999
5. “The Hidden MSE Service Sector: Research into Commercial BDS Provision to Micro and
Small Enterprises in Viet Nam and Thailand” (Series on Innovation and Sustainability in
Business Support Services (FIT)), Gavin Anderson, 2000
6. “Home Work in Argentina” (Series on Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Elizabeth Jelin,
Matilde Mercado, Gabriela Wyczykier, 2000
7. “Home Work in Brazil: New Contractual Arrangements” (Series on Homeworkers in the
Global Economy), Lena Lavinas, Bila Sorj, Leila Linhares, Angela Jorge, 2000
8. “Home Work in Chile: Past and Present Results of a National Survey” (Series on
Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Helia Henríquez, Verónica Riquelme, Thelma Gálvez,
Teresita Selamé, 2000
9. “Promoting Women’s Entrepreneurship Development based on Good Practice Programmes:
Some Experiences from the North to the South” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship
Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Paula Kantor, 2000
10. “Case Study of Area Responses to Globalization: Foreign Direct Investment, Local Suppliers
and Employment in Györ, Hungary” (Series on Globalization, Area-based Enterprise
Development and Employment), Maarten Keune, András Toth, 2001
11. “Local Adjustment to Globalzation: A Comparative Study of Foreign Investment in Two
Regions of Brazil, Greater ABC and Greater Porto Alegre” (Series on Globalization, Area-
based Enterprise Development and Employment), Glauco Arbix, Mauro Zilbovicius, 2001
12. “Local Response to Globalization: MESTA Region, Bulgaria” (Series on Globalization, Area-
based Enterprise Development and Employment), Hanna Ruszczyk, Ingrid Schubert, Antonina
Stoyanovska, 2001
13. “Ethnic Minorities — Emerging Entrepreneurs in Rural Viet Nam: A Study on the Impact of
Business Training on Ethnic Minorities”, Jens Dyring Christensen, David Lamotte, 2001
14. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in Bangladesh: Factors Affecting Women Entrepreneurs
in Small and Cottage Industries in Bangladesh” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship
Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Nilufer Ahmed Karim, 2001
15. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises: Getting the Policy Environment Right” (Series on
Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Linda
Mayoux, 2001
16. “Regions, Regional Institutions and Regional Development” (Series on Globalization, Area-
based Enterprise Development and Employment), Maarten Keune, 2001
17. “ICTs and Enterprises in Developing Countries: Hype or Opportunity?” (Series on Innovation
and Sustainability in Business Support Services (FIT)), Jim Tanburn and Alwyn Didar Singh,
2001
18. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in Africa and Asia: Lessons drawn from Bangladesh, the
Philippines, Tunisia and Zimbabwe” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and
Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Pamela Nichols Marcucci, 2001
68
19. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in the Caribbean: Lessons from Barbados, Suriname and
Trinidad and Tobago” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender in
Enterprises — WEDGE), Carol Ferdinand (ed.), 2001
20. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in Bulgaria” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship
Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Antonina Stoyanovska, 2001
21. “Women Entrepreneurs in Albania” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and
Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Mimoza Bezhani, 2001
22. “Ajuste Local à Globalização: um estudo comparativo do investimento estrangeiro direto no
ABC e na Grande Porto Alegre” (Série sobre Globalização, Desenvolvimento de Empresas ao
Nível Local e Emprego), Glauco Arbix, Mauro Zilbovicius, 2002
23. “Small Enterprises, Big Challenges: A Literature Review on the Impact of the Policy
Environment on the Creation and Improvement of Jobs within Small Enterprises”, (Series on
Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Gerhard Reinecke, 2002
24. “Méthodes et Instruments d’Appui au Secteur Informel en Afrique Francophone”, Carlos
Maldonado, Anne-Lise Miélot, Cheikh Badiane, 2003 (forthcoming)
25. “Artisanat et Emploi dans les Provinces de Settat et El Jadida”, Gérard Barthélemy, 2002
26. “Employment Creation and Employment Quality in African Manufacturing Firms”, Micheline
Goedhuys, 2002
27E. “An Information Revolution for Small Enterprise in Africa: Experience in Interactive Radio
Formats in Africa” (Series on Innovation and Sustainability in Business Support Services
(FIT)), Mary McVay, 2002
27F. “Une révolution de l’information pour les petites entreprises en Afrique : L’expérience en
matière de formats radio interactifs en Afrique” (Série Innovation et viabilité des services
d’appui aux entreprises), Mary McVay, 2002
28. “Assessing Markets for Business Development Services: What have we learned so far?”
(Series on Innovation and Sustainability in Business Support Services (FIT)), Alexandra
Overy Miehlbradt, 2002
29. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
in Pakistan” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment),
Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority of Pakistan (SMEDA), 2002
30. “Creating Market Opportunities for Small Enterprises: Experiences of the Fair Trade
Movement”, Andy Redfern and Paul Snedker, 2002
31. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in Small Enterprises in
Viet Nam” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment),
Pham Thi Thu Hang, 2002
32. “Business Training Markets for Small Enterprises in Developing Countries: What do we know
so far about the potential?” (Series on Innovation and Sustainability in Business Support
Services (FIT)), Akiko Suzuki, 2002
33. “Organizing Workers in Small Enterprises: The Experience of the Southern African Clothing
and Textile Workers’ Union” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Mark
Bennett, 2002
34. “Protecting Workers in Micro and Small Enterprises: Can Trade Unions Make a Difference?
A Case Study of the Bakery and Confectionery Sub-sector in Kenya” (Series on
Representation and Organization Building), Gregg J. Bekko and George M. Muchai, 2002
35. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in SMMEs in South
Africa” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Jennifer
Mollentz, 2002
69
36. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of Street Trading in South Africa”
(Series on Representation and Organization Building) Shirin Motala, 2002
37. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Clothing Industry in South
Africa” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Mark Bennett, 2003
38. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Building Industry in South
Africa” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Tanya Goldman, 2003
39. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Minibus Taxi Industry in South
Africa” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Jane Barrett, 2003
40. “Rags or Riches? Phasing-Out the Multi-Fibre Arrangement”, Auret van Heerden, Maria
Prieto Berhouet, Cathrine Caspari, 2003
41. “Flexibilizing Employment: An Overview”, Kim Van Eyck, 2003
42. “Role of the Informal Sector in Coping with Economic Crisis in Thailand and Zambia”, Gerry
Finnegan and Andrea Singh (eds.), 2003
43. “Opportunities for SMEs in Developing Countries to Upgrade in a Global Economy” (Series
on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), John Humphrey, 2003
44. “Participation in Global Value Chains as a Vehicle for SME Upgrading: A Literature Review”
(Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Cathrine
Caspari, 2003
45. “Local Implementation of Quality, Labour and Environmental Standards: Opportunities for
Upgrading in the Footwear Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and
Global Value Chains), Lizbeth Navas-Alemán and Luiza Bazan, 2003
46. “Industrial Renewal and Inter-firm Relations in the Supply Chain of the Brazilian Automotive
Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Anne
Caroline Posthuma, 2003 (forthcoming)
47. “The Competitive Advantage of Buying Networks in Wood Products Value Chains” (Series
on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Jeff Readman, 2003
(forthcoming)
48. “High Road Upgrading in the ‘Third Italy’: Lessons for Integrated Small Enterprise
Development and Good Labour Conditions in Developing Countries” (Series on Upgrading in
Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Alberto Criscuolo, 2003 (forthcoming)
49. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: The Music Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and
Global Value Chains), Cecile Lambert, 2003
50. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: The Ethno-tourism Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise
Clusters and Global Value Chains), Steven Bolnick, 2003 (forthcoming)
51. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: Crafts and Visual Arts” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters
and Global Value Chains), The Trinity Session, 2003 (forthcoming)
52. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: The Performing Arts and Dance” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise
Clusters and Global Value Chains), Annabell Lebethe, 2003
53. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: Television and Film” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters
and Global Value Chains), Avril Goffe and Natalie Jacklin, 2003 (forthcoming)
70
54. “Promouvoir un environnement de développement des micro et petites entreprises guinéennes
favorable à la création d’emplois décents” (Série Cadre stratégique favorable à l’emploi dans
les petites entreprises), Moussa Kourouma, 2003
55. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in Micro and Small
Enterprises in Tanzania” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise
Employment) Paul Tibandebage, Samuel Wangwe, Moses Msuya, Darlene Mutalemwa, 2003
56. “Public Policy and Employment in Micro and Small Enterprises in Peru” (Series on
Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Juan Chacaltana, 2003
(forthcoming)
57. “Business Centres for Small Enterprise Development: Experiences and Lessons from Eastern
Europe”, Merten Sievers, Klaus Haftendorn, Astrid Bessler, 2003
58. “Promoting Female Entrepreneurship in Mauritius: Strategies in Training and Development”,
(Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality — WEDGE),
Patricia Day-Hookoomsing, Vedna Essoo, 2003
59. “Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship, Part I: An analysis of awareness and promotion
programmes in formal and non-formal education”, Klaus Haftendorn, Carmela Salzano, 2003
59. “Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship, Part II: A directory of awareness and promotion
programmes in formal and non-formal education”, Klaus Haftendorn, Carmela Salzano, 2003
(forthcoming)
60. “Organizing in South Africa’s Informal Economy: An Overview of Four Sectoral Case
Studies” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Tanya Goldman, 2003
61. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in MSEs in Chile”
(Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Carolina Flores,
2003
62. “Quels facteurs influencent la croissance et l’emploi décent dans les petites enterprises en
Guinée?” (Série Cadre stratégique favorable à l’emploi dans les petites entreprises), Moussa
Kourouma, 2003 (forthcoming)
doc_111142812.pdf
On this particular brief paper account facilitating youth entrepreneurship part i an analysis of awareness and promotion.
SEED WORKING PAPER No. 59
Series on Youth and Entrepreneurship
Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship
Part I
An analysis of awareness and promotion programmes
in formal and non-formal education
by
Klaus Haftendorn
Carmela Salzano
InFocus Programme on Boosting Employment
through Small EnterprisE Development
Job Creation and Enterprise Department
International Labour Office · Geneva
Copyright © International Labour Organization 2003
First published 2003
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ILO
Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship, Part I: An analysis of awareness and promotion programmes in formal and non-formal education.
Geneva, International Labour Office, 2003
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iii
Foreword
Five hundred million young people will enter the workforce within the next decade.
Today, 66 million young people are unemployed and an even higher number are
underemployed. Overall, the unemployment rate for young people is two to three times higher
than for adults.
A generation without the hope of a stable job is a burden for the whole of society.
Poor employment in the early stages of a young person’s career can harm job prospects for
life. The economic investment of governments in education and training will be wasted if
young people do not move into productive jobs that enable them to pay taxes and support
public services.
Having reduced youth unemployment to half by 2015 is one of the goals that Heads of
State of all member countries of the United Nations adopted in the Millennium Declaration.
The ILO is exploring ways to increase youth employment which will help end the vicious
cycle of poverty and social exclusion. ILO member states, employers’ and workers’
organizations are being made aware of youth employment issues, which helps them formulate
effective policies and programmes. The ILO also documents innovative ways to keep young
people from dropping out of education so they can enter the world of work with better
training and higher-paid skills. The ILO’s Know About Business (KAB) training package is
offered at vocational and technical training institutions. It is a comprehensive set of materials
on entrepreneurship education. KAB encourages young people to consider self-employment
as a career. By using the package, schools can help trainees who aspire to entrepreneurship to
learn to face some of the challenges of managing a small business.
The ILO is acting as the Secretariat of the Youth Employment Network (YEN) set up
by the Secretary-General of the UN. A panel of 12 civil society and industrial leaders is
responsible for the formulation of recommendations on ways to reduce youth unemployment.
These focus on four key areas: Employment creation, Entrepreneurship, Employability and
Equal opportunities – the four “E”s. As a contribution to the work of the panel, IFP/SEED
established a research series entitled “Youth and Entrepreneurship”, led by Klaus Haftendorn
of IFP/SEED.
The present Working Paper – the first in the series – addresses education for
entrepreneurship. It takes up one of the recommendations of the panel’s working group on
Entrepreneurship, stipulating that “the education system must recognize the need for
developing the skills and attitudes that make up an entrepreneurial mindset such as lateral
thinking, questioning, independence and self-reliance. This education should continue through
vocational training, business incubation and the start-up phase for young entrepreneurs.”
The review presented in Part I of this paper analyses awareness and promotion
programmes in formal and non-formal education from around the world. Part II, published
separately, contains an extensive directory with short descriptions of more than 100 current
and recently completed programmes for entrepreneurship education. Together, they constitute
a rich source of information for use by planners and decision makers on youth employment
and education policies. In addition, the wealth of details and references on the implementation
of such policies may inspire and guide the many practitioners of youth training and job
creation programmes.
iv
Particular thanks is given to the co-author of this study, Ms. Carmela Salzano who
carried out the main part of the research work of identifying and analysing the programmes.
Acknowledgement is due to Takafumi Ueda and Jim Tanburn of IFP/SEED for their
constructive comments on the draft and to Geraldeen Fitzgerald and Barbara Cooper for their
careful editing. Finally, the publication of this paper would not have been possible without the
consistent and meticulous logistical and editorial support of Christine Vuilleumier.
Kees van der Ree
Director (a.i.)
InFocus Programme on Boosting Employment
through Small Enterprise Development
v
Abbreviations
AIDS acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
AIMS Assessment of the Impact of Microfinance Services
APCE Agence pour la Création d’Entreprises
ATSIC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
BDS Business development services
BENE Business Educators Network for Entrepreneurship
BYST Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (India)
CADEC Catholic Development Commission
CECTEC Centro de Educación, Capacitación y Tecnologia
CEED Centre for Education and Enterprise Development
CEFE Competency-based Economies through Formation of Enterprises
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
CIDE Centre for Educational Research and Development
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
CTEC Certified Technical Education Centre
CYCI Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative
CYP Commonwealth Youth Program
DAPP Drug Abuse and Prevention Programme
DAPPA Drug Abuse Prevention Programme in Asia
DFID Department for International Development, United Kingdom
DIEPES Distance education programme (Finland)
DUBS Durham University Business School
EDC Entrepreneurship Development Centre
ECJC Educación y Capacitación de Jóvenes Campesinos (Education and
Training for Rural Youth)
EDI-I Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
EEP Entrepreneurship Education Programme
EMPRETEC Emprendedores
technologiaESDP Entrepreneurial Skills Development Programme
ETF European Training Foundation
EU European Union
FEBDEV Foundation for Entrepreneurial and Business Development
FEED Forum on Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development
FRG Federal Republic of Germany
GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
GGLS Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings
GPYD Global Partnership for Youth Development
GTZ Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
HIV human immunodeficiency virus
HMG/N His Majesty’s Government of Nepal
IAWGYD Inter-American Working Group on Youth Development
IAYD Integrated Approach to Youth Development
ICTs Information and communication technologies
IDRC International Development Research Centre
ILC International Labour Conference
ILO International Labour Organization
ITE Institute of Technical Education
IUT Institut Universitaire de Technologie
IYB Improve Your Business
IYF International Youth Foundation
JEP Joint Enrichment Project
vi
KAB Know About Business
K-MAP Kenya Management Assistance Programme
KYTEC Kenya Youth Training and Employment Creation Project
LMI Labour market information
MSE Micro and Small Enterprise
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NHO Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry
NIC Newly industrializing countries
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
PAAZ Potential Agribusiness Association of Zambia
PECs Personal entrepreneurial competencies
PHARE EU assistance programme for Central and Eastern Europe
POs Partner Organizations
RCED Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development
RIT Rajamangala Institute of Technology
RSTP Refugee and Sudanese Training Programme
SACBC South African Catholic Bishops Conference
SACC South African Council of Churches
SBPP Small Business Promotion Project
SDSR Skills Development for Self-Reliance
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
SIYB Start and Improve Your Business
SME Small and Medium Enterprise
STEP-IN Integrated Skills Training for Employment Promotion
SYB Start Your Business
TACIS EU assistance programme for CIS
TEA Total Entrepreneurial Activity
TEDI The Entrepreneurial Development Institute
TRYSEM Training for Rural Youth for Self Employment
TOT Training-of-Trainers
TVET Technical and vocational education and training systems
UA University of Arizona
UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization
UP ISSI University of the Philippines, Institute for Small-Scale Industries
USAID United States Agency for International Development
YBI Youth Business International
YEN Youth Employment Network
YES The Golden Vale Young Entrepreneurs Scheme
YOP Youth Outreach Programme
YSA Youth Service America
YTE Youth Tech Entrepreneurs
ZNFU Zambia National Farmers Union
vii
Table of contents
Foreword ...................................................................................................................................iii
Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. v
Introduction............................................................................................................................... ix
Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. xi
1. Socio-economic context affecting youth entrepreneurship................................................ 1
1.1 Cultural influence on entrepreneurship...................................................................... 1
1.2 Relationship between cultural patterns and entrepreneurship.................................... 3
1.3 Labour market and employment situation of youth ................................................... 5
1.4 Socio-economic context by category of countries ..................................................... 6
1.4.1 Industrialized countries................................................................................... 6
1.4.2 Transition countries ........................................................................................ 9
1.4.3 Developing countries .................................................................................... 10
1.4.4 Other countries.............................................................................................. 11
2. Promoting youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation: Approaches and
general findings................................................................................................................ 12
2.1 National government policy..................................................................................... 13
2.2 Teacher training and professional development....................................................... 14
2.3 Resource materials and training packages ............................................................... 15
2.4 Partnership arrangements ......................................................................................... 16
2.5 Most common programme features.......................................................................... 20
3. Findings at different levels of education.......................................................................... 21
3.1 Secondary level ........................................................................................................ 21
3.1.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 21
3.1.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 22
3.1.3 Transition and developing countries............................................................. 22
3.2 Technical and vocational education......................................................................... 22
3.2.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 22
3.2.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 23
3.2.3 Transition countries ...................................................................................... 24
3.2.4 Developing countries .................................................................................... 24
3.3 University level ........................................................................................................ 25
3.3.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 25
3.3.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 26
3.3.3 Transition countries ...................................................................................... 27
3.3.4 Developing countries .................................................................................... 27
3.4 Post formal education programmes.......................................................................... 28
3.4.1 Overview....................................................................................................... 28
3.4.2 Developed countries ..................................................................................... 29
3.4.3 Transition countries ...................................................................................... 29
3.4.4 Developing countries .................................................................................... 30
3.5 Youth programmes for specific target groups.......................................................... 31
3.5.1 At-risk and marginalized youth .................................................................... 31
3.5.2 Rural areas .................................................................................................... 32
3.5.3 Information and communication technologies (ICTs).................................. 34
3.5.4 Environment and community........................................................................ 36
3.5.5 Women.......................................................................................................... 37
viii
3.5.6 Vulnerability due to drug abuse or sexually transmitted diseases ................ 37
3.5.7 Religious/indigenous/minority groups.......................................................... 38
3.5.8 Un- and under-employed diploma holders ................................................... 38
3.5.9 Children in post-crisis situations................................................................... 38
4. Impact and potential for replication ................................................................................. 40
4.1 Impact of enterprise education................................................................................. 40
4.2 Potential for replication............................................................................................ 45
5. Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 54
5.1 Wider policy environment for youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation....... 54
5.2 Integrating entrepreneurship education into the classroom...................................... 55
5.3 Teacher training........................................................................................................ 58
5.4 Follow-up activities.................................................................................................. 58
5.5 Equality of opportunity ............................................................................................ 60
5.6 Exploiting opportunities in the ICT sector............................................................... 60
5.7 Financing.................................................................................................................. 60
5.8 Outreach ................................................................................................................... 61
6. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 62
References ................................................................................................................................ 63
Further reading......................................................................................................................... 64
Tables
Table 1.1: Total Entrepreneurial Activities (TEA) in selected countries in 2002..................... 3
Figures
Figure 1.1: How cultural characteristics influence entrepreneurship........................................ 4
Figure 1.2: Labour market movements, entrances and exists ................................................... 6
Figure 1.3: Youth and overall unemployment rates of OECD countries, 2002........................ 8
ix
Introduction
“More than 1 billion people today are between 15 and 25 years of age and nearly 40
per cent of the world’s population is below the age of 20. Eighty-five per cent of these young
people live in developing countries where many are especially vulnerable to extreme poverty.
The ILO estimates that around 74 million young women and men are unemployed throughout
the world, accounting for 41 per cent of all 180 million unemployed
1
persons globally. These
figures do not take into consideration worldwide underemployed (estimated at 310 million).
Many more young people are working long hours for low pay, struggling to eke out a living in
the informal economy. An estimated 59 million young people between 15 and 17 years old
are engaged in hazardous forms of work. Young people actively seeking to participate in the
world of work are two to three times more likely than older generations to find themselves
unemployed.”
2
The Fight against Youth Unemployment is part of the Millennium Goals set by the
Heads of State and Governments who met at the Millennium Summit. A Youth Employment
Network (YEN) was initiated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in association
with the World Bank and the International Labour Organization. The ILO acts as the
Secretariat for YEN.
Questions related to youth employment are treated in a number of ILO Conventions
and Recommendations. Following up on the Millennium Summit, the ILO has strengthened
its activities on policy recommendation programmes and tools for its member countries that
are targeting the reduction of youth unemployment.
Self-employment and micro and small enterprise creation are routes that young people
can actively explore to forge their futures. Enterprises are the places where the jobs are.
Promoting a positive enterprise culture is also a way to facilitate youth employment.
The present paper is the first part of an empirical research project on the effects of
awareness-raising programmes and their impact on promoting self-employment and
entrepreneurship as career options for young people entering the labour market.
The project objective is the development of recommendations for a comprehensive
framework and proven programmes for awareness-raising and entrepreneurship promotion
with impact on the reduction of youth unemployment through self-employment and enterprise
creation.
The research started with a mapping exercise to identify programmes implemented by
governments, employers’ organizations, craft guilds, workers’ organizations, international
donors, NGOs and other civil society associations to facilitate the transition from school and
higher education into self-employment and entrepreneurship, through a variety of modalities
including:
• formal education, university, technical high schools, commercial schools,
vocational training
• promotion of unemployed diploma-holders for self-employment and enterprise
creation
1
According to the ILO definition, an “unemployed person is without work but makes him/herself available for
employment and has worked less than one hour in a reference week”.
2
ILO Governing Body document GB.286/ESP/5 Context of Youth Employment.
x
• achievement motivation programmes for identification of potential entrepreneurs
• entrepreneurship training programmes for youth
• coaching programmes through senior managers and entrepreneurs
• training companies
• business activities run by young people and linked to schools, vocational
training centres and universities
• start-up funding programmes and micro-finance schemes
• youth chamber of entrepreneurs, awards for youth entrepreneurs
• programmes targeting youth entrepreneurship in the informal economy.
The paper presents the results of the mapping exercise with an analysis of the
programmes and first conclusions for replication.
All programmes identified throughout this mapping exercise are documented in a
separate Directory attached to the present paper. This Directory is also available online on the
IFP/SEED’s web page and is frequently updated.
xi
Executive Summary
The world’s different nations view entrepreneurial activities differently, in accordance
with their prevailing culture towards entrepreneurship. Promoting a positive attitude to
entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming the policy of governments whose objective is to
generate more employment through enterprise creation. In this context, youth
entrepreneurship programmes are promoted in schools and communities across the world and
on the Internet. Many examples of enterprise and entrepreneurship education programmes can
be found within national education systems at secondary, vocational, tertiary and university
levels. Programmes have also evolved within the informal economy targeting potential young
entrepreneurs, unemployed, out-of-school or at-risk youth.
Interventions have been designed and implemented by a range of providers, including
public agencies, inter-governmental and bilateral technical assistance partners, the private
sector and non-governmental organizations in a variety of settings. In developed countries,
emphasis is on activities that will nurture the skills and creativity of youth with the potential
to set up their own businesses and, at the same time, make them more employable in formal
labour markets. In developing and transition countries, there is also a growing recognition of
the enormous importance and potential of the informal economy to provide employment and
income-generation opportunities. Training is being reformed to facilitate the insertion of
youth into local economic activities through small enterprises in the informal economy.
Secondary level
At secondary level, many interventions are designed to impart a spirit of
entrepreneurship and teach business concepts through team-based, experiential learning.
Entrepreneurship and enterprise can be integrated throughout the curriculum, as an optional
subject or as an after-school activity. Activities in the classroom are based on managing a
project and are often presented through the simulation of how an entrepreneur operates when
setting up and running a small business, as distinct from operating in a large company where
individual roles and responsibilities are clearly designated. Tools and resources used depend
on country context, but generally include group and one-to-one mentoring with volunteers
from the business and not-for-profit community, work placements, business simulation
games, entrepreneurship competitions, etc. In addition, students can participate in national
and international networks of simulation or practice-firms that have been created in other
schools and thus acquire global economic knowledge. In some cases, students use technology
as applied in business, including the use of the Internet for global transactions and
communications.
In industrialized countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, there are
numerous examples of enterprise education at secondary level. Curriculum guidelines,
materials and resources for enterprise programmes and interventions are at a fairly advanced
level, relying on specially designed supplementary course materials, multimedia and Internet.
These are either designed or supplied by national education systems (often the case in Europe)
or are purchased from not-for-profits specializing in enterprise education (as is often the case
in the United States). The research identified fewer examples in developing and transition
countries, where education systems are overwhelmed by problems of implementing proposed
reforms, scant resources, lack of materials and overcrowding.
xii
Technical and vocational education
Many countries are reforming their technical and vocational education and training
systems (TVET) as part of efforts to reorient national training systems towards new areas of
growth in national economies. TVET is becoming more targeted towards the needs of the
business community with a less rigid emphasis on training for waged employment.
In the area of enterprise education, students obtain direct experience in applying their
technical knowledge in a commercial environment, or participate in creating and developing a
real company that markets its own products.
Reforms in developing and transition countries are taking place with the assistance of
inter-governmental and bilateral technical assistance partners. Private sector firms also
occasionally supply curriculum guidelines and materials, or subsidize courses as part of a
particular sponsorship programme. In some countries, there are even examples of training
offered by large companies to non-employees.
University level
Universities around the world supply highly skilled manpower to the public sector,
commerce and industry. Within the faculty of business, or independently, several universities
in North America and Europe, as well as further afield, now offer entrepreneurship courses at
undergraduate and graduate levels. Many have established Centres for Entrepreneurship to
engage in training, research and development, consultancy and information dissemination and
provide follow-up services for students.
In recent years, universities have developed closer linkages with government and
industry to new growth areas and to promote technology and innovation. Entrepreneurship
education is a natural extension of this trend and universities are engaging in the job of not
only training potential and existing entrepreneurs, but raising awareness about the importance
of entrepreneurship throughout the university community at national and international levels.
For example, the Scottish Institute for Enterprise works with Scottish universities to enhance,
encourage and develop entrepreneurship education and to promote an enterprise culture that is
supportive of technology entrepreneurship, leading to a greater number of business start-ups
emerging from Scottish universities into the commercial marketplace.
Non-formal education
Programmes targeting the informal economy recognize that many children – for
social, economic or cultural reasons – do not make it through the school system or else come
out of it lacking the skills required in the formal labour market. In developing countries in
particular, where state welfare systems are non-existent, many children enter straight into
low-wage exploitative work or start their own subsistence-level activities in the informal
sector. Worse, they become prey to drugs, disease, sex work, etc.
Non-formal programmes by definition are implemented outside of any established or
structured formal system of learning. A diverse range of support is available to young people
either to train as artisans and/or become self-employed in the informal sector. Interventions
range from the provision of credit and mentoring, counselling support, outreach, awards and
competitions, trainers of trainers, etc. through a variety of partners and modalities. Most
methods try to integrate the natural learning processes and assets of youth living in difficult
circumstances and help them to develop small businesses, avoid drugs and crime, sharpen
xiii
their academic skills and form positive attitudes about themselves and their communities, as
well as bolstering the self-confidence and leadership skills required in the workplace.
Some of the programmes have evolved a sectoral focus (e.g. new technologies, e-
commerce) or are offered as part of a livelihoods or life skills package (e.g. HIV/AIDS
prevention, drug rehabilitation or adolescent reproductive health), particularly in the
developing world. Some programmes also specifically target different population groups,
such as minority or indigenous groups, young girls and women or else have a geographic
focus, i.e. rural areas or urban slum dwellings.
In developed countries, programmes are implemented at centre facilities, public
schools, after-school programmes at community-based organizations and intensive summer
business camps. They often rely on support of local business and community development
through sponsorship of programmes and active involvement of voluntary mentors.
In developing and transition countries, the design and implementation of interventions
takes place within a community development or poverty reduction framework and as a
collaborative effort between United Nations agencies, bilateral technical assistance, partners
with external funding (whether from NGOs, bilateral or multilateral agencies), working
directly or indirectly (either through funding local NGOs or through direct funding) to
encourage the development of small-scale industries.
Common features
In spite of the broad differences in economic, social and cultural contexts for
entrepreneurship and enterprise education across regions and countries, there are nevertheless
some similarities in the way that these programmes at different levels of education have been
conceived and are delivered. All the projects and programmes suggest, to varying degrees,
that the key to promoting entrepreneurial initiative is in engaging the imagination of students,
that is, in assisting them to think of developing their own business ideas, by showing them, at
least in part, what it could be like to establish and run their own businesses.
Most programmes tend to combine classroom-based instruction with mentoring,
guidance and counselling, practical experience and a menu of support that is adapted to the
socio-economic circumstances of the participants and is flexible enough to evolve as their
needs and priorities change. In North America, not-for-profits specializing in enterprise and
entrepreneurship education are now servicing programmes in both the formal and non-formal
sectors. In the developing world, tool kits and methodologies such as KAB and SIYB from
ILO, CEFE from GTZ, the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative and Street Kids
International, to name a few, have been developed and replicated widely.
A common theme running through entrepreneurship and enterprise education
programmes, irrespective of socio-economic context, is that they are often delivered within
the framework of partnership arrangements
3
and coalitions at both national and international
levels. The rise in popularity of public/private sector partnership arrangements within the
formal sector is often primarily to facilitate learning and promote sustainability within the
framework of a coherent plan for local economic development. In Western countries, they
often take the form of strengthened cooperation between education and training authorities
3
Here, partnership means arrangements where governments, the international community, businesses and
schools commit through mutual beneficial activities to give students greater insights into questions related to the
world of work and business and to prepare them for self-employment.
xiv
and business associations and enterprise boards. The Golden Vale Young Entrepreneurs
Scheme Awards (YES) in Ireland, for example, is carried out in association with City and
County Enterprise Boards throughout the country.
In developing countries, strategic partnerships are formed to enable the Centre for
Education and Enterprise Development (South Africa) to deliver a holistic and integrated
programme to its target group. The private sector, for example Shell LiveWire in Singapore,
runs an outreach campaign to ensure that potential entrepreneurs outside the student
population are able to participate in workshops, an awards scheme and a mentoring
programme.
Impact
Ultimately the outcomes of these programmes are intended not only to stimulate
economic growth opportunities in line with new market realities, but also to deal with the
increasing problems facing under-employed and unemployed youth in lagging regions of
developed countries and developing and transition countries in general. Such programmes are
seen as a fundamental component of national strategies to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities
that young people face. Preventive measures are needed that promote and facilitate the social
and economic integration of at-risk youth into society in urban and rural communities.
However, it is difficult to get a clear measure of the impact of programmes towards
entrepreneurship and self-employment. At secondary level, most programmes only last for a
one-year period, while at vocational, university and non-formal levels, the general programme
cycle is 2-3 years. But the effects are only generally felt after a period of 5-10 years, as most
young people who wish to go into business usually begin with a period of waged
employment. Unfortunately, there are few tracer studies available for both formal and
informal sectors, i.e. tracing graduates of enterprise education and self-employment
programmes to see whether they have become business owners or gone into self-employment.
Added to this, the measurement of entrepreneurial skills is inherently difficult. Perhaps more
importantly, it is extremely difficult to isolate the impact of a particular intervention without
considering the interaction among the different social, cultural and economic influences on
entrepreneurial behaviour in any given regional or country context.
We can measure impact in terms of numbers of young people trained or loans
disbursed, and even numbers of new businesses created within the immediate follow-up
period. However, again, there are few tracer studies to see how many of these businesses
survive after the critical three-year period. Beyond quantifiable indicators, however, the
success of youth entrepreneurship interventions can also be measured in terms of impact on
government policy and the community. In India, for example, the encouraging results of the
(BYST) programme led to a decision by the national government to permit all banks to give
loans worth Rs. 0.5 million to start-up businesses without collateral and security. Some
programmes, such as the Barefoot College in India, combine targeted assistance to poverty
issues with economic empowerment for self-reliance, so as to have an all-round development
of the community.
Measuring the success of entrepreneurship and enterprise education programmes, as
well as programmes towards self-employment, is nevertheless a major challenge. It is clear
that different programmes are likely to succeed where the government, at local and national
levels, is already providing broad-based support to the creation of SMEs within the
framework of national enterprise policy, local stakeholders are engaged in policy dialogue,
xv
market-based business support institutions and legal frameworks are evolved and youth as a
population group are receiving targeted assistance through national policy frameworks. In
Italy, for example, the Marco Polo project implemented in secondary schools in Padova,
benefits from the tri-sector partnership that already sustains small business clusters in Emilia
Romagna. Here, young people with entrepreneurial initiative are more likely to make a
seamless transition from business simulation into the real economy. Without an enabling
environment, interventions can only have a short-term effect and there is little chance of
young entrepreneurs growing and surviving outside of the programme framework.
Best practices and model programmes of youth development are being shared through
conferences, audio-visual materials, publications, television programming, press articles,
newsletters, Internet web sites and the creation of project-specific databases. This document is
a first step towards identifying the ways in which countries are beginning to overcome the
problems facing youth in the economic and social spheres and developing guidelines for
youth entrepreneurship programmes.
1
1. Socio-economic context affecting youth entrepreneurship
1.1 Cultural influence on entrepreneurship
On 17 June 1998 in Geneva, the International Labour Conference adopted
Recommendation No. 189 concerning the General Conditions to Stimulate Job Creation in
Small and Medium-seized Enterprises. An important issue of the Recommendation is
recognition by the member States of the ILO present in the ILC of the importance of social
and cultural influences on entrepreneurship and the formation of new enterprises.
Recent research tries to ascertain how the national cultural attitude influences the
entrepreneurial activities of the population of a country or a region.
Cultural standards are determinant for a national culture. They are understood as all
kinds of recognition, thinking, values and activities that the majority of members belonging to
the same culture considers as normal, natural, typical and binding. Behaviour is controlled on
the basis of recognized cultural standards. The individual form and the group-specific form of
cultural standards differ within a certain range. Central cultural standards in one culture can
be completely missing in another culture or only have peripheral meanings or fundamental
different functions.
4
Entrepreneurship is understood in a wide social, cultural and economic context, as
well as being innovative at home, school, leisure and at work. Entrepreneurship involves life
attitudes, including the readiness and the courage to act in the social, cultural and economic
context.
Entrepreneurial qualities or behaviour include:
creativity and curiosity
motivation by success
willingness to take risks
ability to cooperate
identification of opportunities
ability to be innovative and tolerate uncertainty.
Cultures that value and reward such behaviour promote a propensity to develop and
introduce radical innovations, whereas cultures that reinforce conformity, group interests, and
control over the future are not likely to show risk-taking and entrepreneurial behaviour
(P. A. Herbig and J. C. Miller, 1992).
Hofstede conducted perhaps the most comprehensive study on how values in the
workplace are influenced by culture. From 1967 to 1973, while working at IBM as a
psychologist, he collected and analysed data from more than 100,000 individuals from 40
countries. From those results he developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions to
differentiate cultures.
• Power distance focuses on the degree of equality or inequality between people in the
country’s society.
4
From an article “National Culture and Entrepreneurship: A Review of Behavioural Research” from James C.
Hayton, Gerard George and Shaher A. Yahra, published in Entreneurship, Theory and Practice, Volume 26,
No. 4, Summer 2002, Baylor University.
2
• Individualism focuses on the degree to which the society reinforces individual or
collective achievement and interpersonal relationship.
• Masculinity focuses on the degree to which the society reinforces or does not reinforce
the traditional masculine role model of male achievement, control and power.
• Uncertainty avoidance focuses on the degree to which the society reinforces – or does
not reinforce – uncertainty and ambiguity within it.
A fifth dimension was included after conducting an additional study using a survey
instrument developed with Chinese employees and managers (called Confucian dynamism) to
look at a culture’s long-term orientation.
• Long-term orientation focuses on the degree to which the society embraces – or does
not embrace – long-term devotion to traditional, forward thinking values.
Based on Hofstede’s model, Shane (1992 and 1993)
5
conducted studies on national
culture and entrepreneurship in 33 countries to find out “the effect of national culture on
national rates of innovation” by using the dimensions of individualism, power distance,
uncertainty and masculinity. He observed that national rates of innovation are positively
correlated with individualism and negatively correlated with uncertainty avoidance and power
distance.
Other studies were conducted to explore the relationship between national culture and
characteristics of entrepreneurs (Scheinberg and MacMillan, 1988
6
who surveyed 1,402
entrepreneurs in 11 countries). The research question was “Are the motives of entrepreneurs
to start a business similar or different across cultures?” The following indicators were
used: need for approval, perceived instrumentality of wealth, communitarianism, need for
personal development, need for independence and need for escape. The major finding was
that the importance of these motives varies systematically across cultures.
A study (conducted by Shane, Kolvereid and Westhead, 1991)
7
researching motivation
for start-ups (597 entrepreneurs interviewed in 3 countries) obtained the same findings. The
reasons for starting a business (recognition of achievement, independence from others,
learning and development, and roles) vary systematically across countries.
This cultural difference may explain why different countries show very different
figures on entrepreneurial activities as monitored by the 2002 Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor Report
8
published by the London Business School, the Kauffman Foundation and
Babson College.
The GEM report researches the Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) of a country
based on the percentage of its labour force that is actively starting up a business or is the
owner/manager of a business that is less than 42 months old. It then examines why those
countries’ level of TEA differ. The latest rankings are given below.
5
See also footnote 4.
6
See also footnote 4.
7
See also footnote 4.
8
Their fourth report covers 37 countries and can be found at www.gemconsortium.org .
3
Table 1.1 Total Entrepreneurial Activities (TEA) in selected countries in 2002
Country TEA % Country TEA % Country TEA %
Thailand 19 Norway 9 Netherlands 5
India 18 Australia 9 Finland 5
Chile 16 Switzerland 7 Poland 4
Korea 15 Israel 7 Taipei 4
Argentina 14 Hungary 7 Sweden 4
New Zealand 14 South
Africa
7 Croatia 4
Brazil 14 Denmark 7 Hong Kong 3
Mexico 12 Singapore 6 France 3
China 12 Italy 6 Belgium 3
Iceland 11 UK 5 Russia 3
USA 11 Germany 5 Japan 2
Ireland 9 Spain 5
Canada 9 Slovenia 5
However, the cultural difference is not the only reason that people become
entrepreneurs.
The report identifies two types of entrepreneurs: those voluntarily pursuing an
attractive business opportunity and those who are engaged in entrepreneurship out of
necessity, because they can find no other suitable work. These split 60:40. Young people
seeking work, particularly in the developing world, fall mainly into this “necessity” group.
1.2 Relationship between cultural patterns and entrepreneurship
Research work and also the GEM report clearly show the strong influence of national
culture on enterprise creation.
A model of how culture is associated with entrepreneurship was developed by Hayton,
George and Zahra
9
that takes in consideration the studies described above. This model is quite
similar to that used for the GEM report.
As figure 1.1 shows, the model includes the individual aspect that consists of
cognition, needs and motives, beliefs and behaviour and the cultural values at individual and
societal level. The complementarities of cultural characteristics and institutional and
economic context influence entrepreneurship.
9
See also footnote 4.
4
Figure 1.1: How cultural characteristics influence entrepreneurship
Source: Hayton, George and Zahra, 2002.
This model could be used to explain at which level action has to be taken in order to
create the broad acceptance of a society towards entrepreneurship and to favour the
development of an enterprise culture that also targets youth.
To change the pattern of cultural determinates is a medium or long-term process. It
needs social campaigns to create positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial education has to be an integrated part of national curricula in
primary, secondary, vocational and higher education. Focusing on awareness-raising
programmes at education institutions and start-up programmes for youth allows governments
to influence the cultural attitudes towards a positive perception of entrepreneurial activities.
The ILO Recommendation No. 189
10
indicates how these cultural attitudes could be
influenced.
“Member States (of the ILO) should adopt measures, drawn up in consultation with
the most representative organizations of employers and workers, to create and strengthen an
enterprise culture which favours initiatives, enterprise creation, productivity, environmental
consciousness, quality, good labour and industrial relations, and adequate social practices
which are equitable. Members should consider:
1) pursuing the development of entrepreneurial attitudes, through the system and
programmes of education, entrepreneurship and training linked to job needs and
the attainment of economic growth and development, with particular emphasis
10
This Recommendation, concerning general conditions to stimulate job creation in small and medium
enterprises, was adopted by the International Labour Conference in 1998.
Cultural values
Individualism-collectivism
Uncertainty avoidance
Power distance
Masculinity-femininity
Cognition
Schemata
Knowledge structures
Decision preferences
Needs and Motives
Needs for achievement
Needs for affiliation
Individual and social goals
Beliefs and Behaviour
Risk-taking
Locus of control
Self-efficacy
Institutional
context
Economic
context
Entrepreneurship
New-venture creation
Corporate venturing
Small and micro
business
Self-employment
(Society)
(Individual)
5
being given to the importance of good labour relations and multiple vocational
and managerial skills needed by small and medium-sized enterprises;
2) seeking, through appropriate means, to encourage a more positive attitude
towards risk-taking and business failure by recognizing their value as a learning
experience, while at the same time recognizing their impact on both entrepreneurs
and workers;
3) encouraging a process of lifelong learning for all categories of workers and
entrepreneurs;
4) designing and implementing, with full involvement of the organizations of
employers and workers concerned, awareness campaigns to promote
a) respect for the rule of law and workers’ rights, better working conditions,
higher productivity and improved quality of goods and services;
b) entrepreneurial role models, and award schemes, taking due account of the
specific needs of women and disadvantaged and marginalized groups.”
The institutional context, which comprises the social systems institutions, the social
partners, and the regulatory and legal system, also reflects the cultural background of a
society. Changes within the institutional context towards a conducive enterprise culture,
however, can be reached in the medium term if there is a strong political will.
Economic growth is the key element for enterprise creation and enterprise growth.
Entrepreneurial activities will reinforce the dynamic of growth. Policy that favours enterprise
creation and enterprise expansion will amplify the process of economic growth and create
new and more employment – needed to absorb young people entering the labour market.
In conclusion, the main characteristics that influence the labour market and the
entrepreneurship situation in a country are:
• enterprise culture
• institutional context
o policy framework
o outreach of the social network
o education and skills level
o enterprise promotion
• strength of the economy and its sectors.
1.3 Labour market and employment situation of youth
The world’s population is growing at a time when traditional, stable labour markets
are shrinking. In developed and developing countries alike, rapid globalization and
technological change have altered both how national economies are organized and what is
produced. Countries differ widely in their restructuring practices, depending on tradition and
culture, as well as the legal and regulatory framework. But a common factor is that traditional
employees, entrepreneurs, managers and the roles of men and women are changing
throughout the world. In most countries, redundancies and unemployment have been one of
the main social costs of the restructuring that continues to take place.
6
Figure 1.2: Labour market movements, entrances and exits
Figure 1.2 shows movements within the labour market as well as the entrances and the
exits. The demand for wage labour comes from the public sector with its administration,
public facilities and state-owned companies. However, the trend in recent years was to
decrease employment in the public sector by increasing the productivity of its administration,
by reducing the services provided to the population and by the privatization of public
enterprises. The private sector with its large, medium and small enterprises could not absorb,
in most cases, this labour. On the contrary, in an economic crisis period, this sector released
workers and employees that upped the unemployment rate and consequently self-employment
and the creation of micro enterprises operating in the informal economy.
In such a situation young people entering the labour market have little chance of
finding employment. Self-employment is often a survival strategy to generate some income
for subsistence.
Becoming the owner of a micro or small enterprise could be an alternative for a young
person who has an entrepreneurial mindset but who also possesses some of the basic skills
and knowledge requirements. Awareness of this career option and an enabling environment
for enterprise creation play a crucial role for a successful start-up.
However, only a small percentage of the labour market population belongs to the
group of private entrepreneurs or self-employed. The number depends on the prevailing
political system, the cultural acceptance of entrepreneurship and the economic strength of the
country.
1.4 Socio-economic context by category of countries
1.4.1 Industrialized countries
The policy of industrialized countries favoured in general market economy and private
sector development move within a range from liberalism (little involvement of the State) to a
Labour market
formal and informal
Government;
Enterprises
-large
-medium
-small
Workers/
employees
Micro entrepreneurs
Self-employed
Unemployed
Exits
Pre-retired
Retired
Illness
Death
Entrances
Universities
Vocational
training
School leavers
-primary level
-secondary level
School drop-
outs
-all levels
Without school
education
7
social market economy. These countries developed strong economies with a high-tech,
export-oriented production sector and a large service sector – both dominated by private
enterprises of medium and small size. Agriculture in terms of employment is insignificant.
The social protection and labour market measures are well developed. Workers and
employees in industrialized countries are highly protected. Reduction of unemployment has
highest political priority. Unemployed persons can obtain financial support, benefit from
retraining measures, and apply for support and loans for start-ups, etc. Active labour market
interventions facilitate the re-integration of unemployed into the labour market. Social
transfer payments can even be higher than minimum wages.
Education and skills level is high due to compulsory school attendance, a large high
school and university system and a modern vocational training system.
In industrialized countries entrepreneurship development and enterprise creation is
facilitated in many ways. There is buying power for goods and services and a variety of
promotion programmes and training facilities through Chambers of Commerce, Chambers of
Crafters, business associations, government-subsidized programmes, start-up financing and
many others. But there is also tough competition that prevents many potential starters from
taking the risk of becoming an entrepreneur.
Potential business starters are often highly qualified persons with strong motivation
that create their enterprises as a spin-off from bigger enterprises in high-tech sectors. Young
university diploma holders with some enterprise experiences are targeted frequently by this
sector. Crafters and artisans who gained experience in small enterprises very often create an
enterprise to be “on their own account”.
Another group of potential business starters constitutes laid-off workers who have not
found wage employment and therefore start a business – frequently in the service sector.
Depending on their qualifications, individuals from the laid-off worker group can perform
very well but usually prefer to opt for social security benefits and return to wage employment
as soon as possible.
Mixed patterns were found concerning the enterprise culture. The social status of an
entrepreneur is highly estimated in some countries; in others the entrepreneur is considered as
the “capitalist”. However, there is a change of attitude in recent years and in particular young
university diploma-holders, skilled workers and artisans are considering the possibility of
becoming entrepreneurs as a valuable option.
In spite of sustained economic growth throughout the 1990s, many people are still
living in poverty. Income inequality is increasing year-on-year. Rapid technological change,
international competition and the shift from an industrial to a knowledge- and information-
based economy have all contributed to greater uncertainty and turbulence in markets and the
business environment.
8
Figure 1.3 Youth and overall unemployment rates (percentage, 1994)
Youth and overall unemployment rates of OECD countries, 2002
0 10 20 30 40 50
Poland
Slovak Rep
Spain
Turkey
Greece
Italy
Finland
Germany
Canada
Czech Rep.
Belgium
Australia
USA
Hungary
Japan
Portugal
New Zealand
Sweden
U K
Austria
Ireland
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Korea
Iceland
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Mexico
15-24(%)
15-64(%)
The situation of youth employment in most of the surveyed countries is worse than the
general employment situation. Youth unemployment is twice to three times higher than the
average unemployment rate, mainly because of those young with low-level education and no
vocational training. As figure 1.3 shows, there are only a few countries in the world where the
general unemployment rate and the youth unemployment rate are the same, among them
Germany and Austria.
In economically disadvantaged areas, local labour markets cannot even absorb the
graduates of their basic and higher education systems. Under-employment poses a major
problem. Young people usually move further afield in search of jobs that match their skills
set, resulting in significant brain drain and the emptying out of areas. Furthermore, high-
school graduates are increasingly worse off than those with higher degrees over the past 15
years, since the possession of higher degrees is increasingly perceived by employers as
implying the possession of qualities that are more useful in the labour market. For those less
well educated, where once a strong back and a will to work guaranteed steady employment,
these people now find themselves in low-paid, high-turnover service sector jobs.
9
1.4.2 Transition countries
Since the beginning of the 1990s the countries with centrally planned economies were
transforming their political and economic system into parliamentarian democracies and
market economies. This process was accompanied by political instability, local armed
conflicts, emergence of economic sectors without legal control and the impoverishment of a
large share of the population – in particular older people.
Now, ten years into the transition process, political stability has improved and the
legal framework is adapting to the new political and economic conditions. The start of
European Union accession negotiations indicates the comparatively successful progress of
these countries towards full democracy and free-market enterprise. Naturally, however, some
problems persist. In areas such as environmental standards, governance and law enforcement,
there is a wide discrepancy with the EU norms.
In addition, for some of these countries (including some in the process of accession),
their economic performance has not yet reached their pre-transition levels. A number of state-
owned unprofitable companies are not yet privatized or closed. The agriculture sector faces
similar problems. State-owned production units were dismantled but privatization of land did
not follow and/or the individual plots distributed to farmers were too small for mechanized
production. Self-employment for survival as street-vendors, day-labourers or subsistence
farmers is often the only source of income. The informal sector emerged as a substantial part
of the economy.
In these countries, the economy is still weak and not able to generate sufficient taxes
to allow their governments to maintain the social security network. Unemployed persons
obtain scant benefits and little help to reintegrate into the labour market. Retired people
cannot live on their pensions.
The education system also suffered from the transition process, as the State could not
afford to cover the costs for schooling and for higher education. Skills training was linked to
the state-owned enterprise sector and training centres disappeared along with enterprises. A
new vocational training system that could take over these centres and adapt them to the needs
of modern technology requires a huge investment. That being said, the transition countries
still dispose of a well-educated and technically well trained labour force that can facilitate
adaptation for modernized enterprises.
Enterprise creation does not occur as an idea to unemployed persons or wage
labourers threatened with dismissal, as there is no private enterprise culture. Here is a real
chance for young people who during the transition period to a market economy have studied
modern management and who are willing to take risks.
Unemployment is but one dimension of the employment problems that confront youth.
There are those who are able to cope, those who exercise their entrepreneurial spirit by
carving out a living from activities in the informal sector (such as artisan crafts, street
vending, cooperative work and recycling). However their social, economic and cultural
isolation and lack of ties makes them vulnerable to exploitation and a multitude of dangers
that include organized and random crime, unemployment, sexually transmitted diseases,
cultural intolerance, and escalating drug and alcohol abuse. The problems facing youth are
more significant in rural areas due to the lack of support systems. In poorer countries, where
public or family sources provide little income support, jobless young people are often denied
10
the “luxury” of remaining unemployed. They eke out a living by means of low productivity
work in the lower, subsistence-oriented, reaches of the informal economy or in such low-yield
activities as odd jobs, hawking and car washing. Here the problem may not be short hours but
excessively long hours with little reward. The widespread stagnation and decline of
employment opportunities in the formal sectors of most developing countries has intensified
the problem in recent years, with young women bearing a disproportionate burden.
1.4.3 Developing countries
Developing countries are characterized by their extreme poverty, high demographic
pressure, dominant agriculture sector and little integration in the global economy.
The prevailing political division of the world in communist/socialist countries and
democratic/capitalist countries determined the political development of these countries after
their independence. Those that followed the socialist model faced all the problems of central
planning, aggravated by the incapacity of the administration and the discouragement of the
private sector. Those who followed the capitalist model could in the beginning attract
considerable foreign investment, in particular for exploitation of their natural resources.
However, both models failed in most cases: lack of democracy resulted in dictatorship,
military rule, political unrest, civil war and hostilities among neighbouring states.
Today most of the developing countries have adapted their legal framework to
democratic rules with parliaments, multi-party systems and market economy. Poverty
reduction is the highest priority for these countries. Governments consider micro and small
enterprise development as a promising way for employment creation.
The economy is mainly based on exploitation of local resources for exportation,
agriculture products and a few manufactured products for the local market. Administrations
were forced to dismiss a substantial number of civil servants in order to cope with their
limited resources. The agriculture sector and the informal sector in urban areas provide nearly
all employment.
Schooling is not generalized and vocational training centres are insufficient in
numbers and quality. In the main, universities offered studies that would lead to employment
in the administration or the formal enterprise sector; however, the absorption capacity of this
segment of the labour market is very limited.
Nowadays in most of these countries, entrepreneurs have a rather positive reputation
and governments are willing to promote business creation. This generates a favourable
environment, in particular for young people with a good educational background and skills
and the risk-taking necessary to start an enterprise. It should be noted that entrepreneurs
reported they are often exposed to red tape and corruption.
In these countries, youth unemployment can be classified into two groups: primary
school leavers not selected for secondary school education and secondary school leavers who
are unable to gain employment in the formal sector. Official unemployment rates are much
higher among youth and rural women – although most young people will attempt to earn a
11
living in the informal economy.
11
The size of the informal economy in terms of employment
stands around 40 per cent in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal and Pakistan.
12
In a survey
of those living in the slums of Bangkok, 87 per cent of those in employment earned a living
through the informal sector. Undoubtedly a large number of these will have had little or no
education.
13
According to the ILO’s World Employment Report 1998-99, “the lack of jobs in
the formal sector of the economy as well as the lack of skills in a large part of the labour force
has resulted in the growth of a substantial informal sector in which most workers are in low-
paid employment under unregulated and poor working conditions.”
Young women typically face higher unemployment rates than young men or have
lower participation rates, although the situation varies considerably between countries. In
many developing countries, girls are outperforming boys at school, but this does not
necessarily translate into greater labour market success. This is still the case, partly because
many girls remain concentrated in traditional fields of study, often not related to rapidly
evolving labour market needs. In addition, some girls may still be the intended or unintended
targets of gender discrimination. In other countries, such as Ghana, India and Kenya, girls’
access to education and training is limited, forcing young women disproportionately into the
informal sector and subsistence-oriented activities. In some countries, economic inactivity is
imposed on young women.
1.4.4 Other countries
The main characteristics of industrialized, developing and transition countries are
described above. However, there are also countries with different characteristics and internal
regional or sector differences of development. They belong partly to industrialized countries
and partly still to developing countries. The newly industrializing countries (NICs) respond to
these criteria. They have strong growth poles that favour micro and small enterprise
development but also have a share of population living in poverty.
11
This encompasses largely unrecognized, unrecorded and unregulated small-scale activities. It includes small
enterprises with hired workers, household enterprises using family labour and the self-employed. Production
processes characteristically rely on high levels of working capital as against fixed capital. Formal contracts
between employers and employees or between buyers and sellers are rare and the often invisible activities
involved usually fall below, or outside, the fiscal net.
12
ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1995.
13
Ratanakomut, S. C. 1994. Urban Poverty in Thailand: Critical Issues and Policy Measures, Asian Development
Review, Vol. 12, No. 1.
12
2. Promoting youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation:
Approaches and general findings
Over 510 million young women and 540 million young men live in the world today
according to United Nations (UN) estimates. This means that approximately one person in
five is between the ages of 15 and 24 years, or that young people comprise almost 18 per cent
of the world’s population. Although the proportion of youth in the world is dwindling (by
2025 it is forecast to fall to 16 per cent) their absolute numbers have increased and will
continue to do so well into the twenty-first century. The majority of young people, 85 per
cent, live in developing countries, with approximately 60 per cent in Asia alone. By 2020, the
number living in developing countries will grow to about 89 per cent.
The importance of education and training for an entrepreneurial society has been
underlined on several occasions through United Nations Declarations and Conventions. ILO
Recommendation No. 189, adopted in 1998, refers to entrepreneurship education as a way of
promoting a positive enterprise culture.
A recent key event in the international development of enterprise education was the
Intergovernmental Conference on Education and the Economy in a Changing Society held
under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
in Paris in 1988. The OECD educational monograph, Towards an Enterprising Culture,
issued soon after that conference, stated:
Changes in educational method are needed to foster competence in ‘being enterprising’
as a vitally important qualification needed by the young as they enter society. This
competence means having the ability to be creative and flexible, to be flexible to take and
exercise initiative and to be able to solve problems.
The importance given by the European Community to entrepreneurship education was
recently underlined in the European Charter for Small Enterprises (adopted by the General
Affairs Council, 13 June 2000, and welcomed by the Feira European Council, 19/20 June
2000) which stated:
Europe will nurture entrepreneurial spirit and new skills from an earlier age. General
knowledge about business and entrepreneurship needs to be taught at all school levels.
Specific business-related modules should be made an essential ingredient of education
schemes at secondary level and at colleges and universities. We will encourage and promote
youngsters’ entrepreneurial endeavours, and develop appropriate training schemes for
managers in small enterprises.
Promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise creation is high on the policy agenda of
almost all countries in the world, as successful enterprises generate additional employment.
But governments should realize that awareness programmes at primary and secondary school
level only have long-term effects. Programmes at vocational training schools are supposed to
have medium-term effects while university programmes can produce results in terms of
business creation in the medium- and short-term.
Entrepreneurship education stimulates young people to think about entrepreneurship
and the role of the business community in economic and social development. Students also
get an opportunity to analyse the changes taking place in their countries and are encouraged to
consider self-employment as a career choice.
13
2.1 National government policy
Few, if any, countries have created clear and comprehensive policy frameworks to
promote youth entrepreneurship and self-employment. Instead, we find elements of education
and training policy at different levels as they relate to the world of work and the world of
business. Increasingly, the concern of governments is to foster a spirit of enterprise and a
number of countries, especially in the European Union, promote self-employment as an
important part of their efforts to reduce youth unemployment.
The responsibility for appropriate education and training programmes is therefore
located within the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and
sometimes with the Ministries of Trade and Industry. In some cases, special inter-ministerial
committees have been convened. Concrete actions focus on programme interventions at
secondary and tertiary levels (see later chapters), awareness-raising campaigns or technical
and financial support and training provided through specifically-designed government
interventions.
Awareness-raising programmes at primary and secondary school level designed to
familiarize pupils with the philosophy of entrepreneurship by developing beliefs, behaviours
and motivation will have a long-term effect; they are expected to exert a positive influence on
enterprise culture. Such programmes integrated in vocational training curricula and university
courses will prepare the ground for entrepreneurship as a career option.
Programmes that aim at immediate enterprise creation for young people can be run at
vocational training schools or universities, but they will have the greatest effect outside the
educational system with people already in their twenties.
Within national education systems, there has been some debate on the meaning of
entrepreneurship and the form that entrepreneurship or enterprise education should take.
14
The
Australian Ministerial Council on Education, Employment and Training and Youth Affairs
adopts the following definition of enterprise education:
Learning directed towards developing in young people those skills, competencies,
understandings, and attributes which equip them to be innovative, and to identify, create,
initiate, and successfully manage personal, community, business and work opportunities,
including working for themselves.
The University of Durham (United Kingdom) suggests that there are a number of
different objectives and outcomes that can be achieved.
• Firstly, and most universally, enterprise education can be a path towards developing
enterprising skills, behaviours and attitudes through any curriculum subject at every
phase of education to provide a wider preparation for autonomy in life including work,
family or leisure.
• Secondly, it can provide insight into and help young people understand about the
entrepreneurial and business development processes through business education in
14
Enterprise education is a highly contested theme. There is tension between what might be termed pedagogical
preoccupations on the one hand, and political and labour market versions of enterprise on the other. Many
teachers are hostile to the notion of pupils being oriented to the free market in what may be termed the
externally-driven models of enterprise. On the other side, politicians and policy makers look to enterprise
education as a way of making pupils and students more ‘realistic’ or more ambitious about the world of work
that lies ahead.
14
secondary schools and in further and higher education allowing young people to work
more effectively in a flexible labour market economy or working in a small business.
• Finally, it can develop awareness of, and capability for, setting up a business now or
sometime in the future. This approach can be used in vocational and professional
education.
The learning effectiveness of such programmes should be measured not in terms of
rote knowledge but the acquisition of practical life skills and the ability of students to
anticipate and respond to societal changes more easily.
2.2 Teacher training and professional development
Within schools and non-formal education programmes, the agents of change are
teachers or facilitators.
Studies by the European Commission have highlighted the need for special training
courses to give teachers the confidence to develop enterprise education and make them more
aware of how they can help pupils or students gain entrepreneurial attitudes and skills.
Many countries now require teachers to take part in training courses, such as the
Skelleftea School Project in Sweden. In Scotland, a series of guides for secondary school
teachers have been developed which encourage reflection on the relationship between the
curricular aims of “Education for Work” – “Primary Teachers Guide for work experience”
and teaching and learning within the 5-14 curriculum and also for subjects taught to older
students.
The National Centre: Education for Work and Enterprise has been established at
Strathclyde University. The role of the National Centre is to raise awareness among educators
in Scotland of the vital role they play in providing young people with the skills and abilities
they need. It seeks to encourage employers and entrepreneurs to involve themselves fully in
education. The Centre is working with partners in Scotland to: promote the cause of
Education for Work and Enterprise with educators and employers; to develop teacher
capability, undertake research, promote new ideas and generally ensure that Education for
Work is given high priority by all.
The German Development Bank DtA funded a training package for teachers on
“Entrepreneur Culture” for students aged 15 and over.
15
In the United States, EdTec (an international not-for-profit orgnization) provides
teacher training through videoconferencing and the EDGE University “certified
entrepreneurship instructor” training, as well as an annual entrepreneurship educators’
conference. The New Youth Entrepreneur Instructor’s Guide, developed in conjunction with
the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, is a 239-page companion guide to the New Youth
Entrepreneur curriculum. It provides information on implementing the curriculum, module
overview, supplemental learning activities and handouts.
In the developing world, entrepreneurship training is mostly provided outside the
formal education system, using stand-alone training courses such as ILO’s Start and Improve
Your Business (SIYB). The agents of change in these programmes are trainers with hands-on
experience from the business world. Programme proliferation is based on the Training-of-
15
Developed by Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft SCHULE-WIRTSCHAFT.
15
Trainers (TOT) courses. The experience gained with this methodology was used to train
vocational training school teachers to give the Know About Business (KAB) programme in
East Africa and Central Asia.
Another example is the CEFE
16
programme from GTZ, which has developed
methodologies for training teachers at different educational levels. This programme was
employed by the Department of Vocational Education’s Small Entrepreneur Development
Project in Thailand for several TOT courses at the Rajamangala Institute of Technology
(RIT). The teachers applied their new skills in the diploma and bachelor level curricula. A
Small-Scale Industry curriculum was developed with the objectives of making students
understand: (a) how to start a business (b) how to raise funds (c) entrepreneurial techniques
(d) systems of production and services, and (e) attitudes required for creating a job
opportunity. The Foundation for Entrepreneurial and Business Development (FEBDEV) in
South Africa trains educators to teach entrepreneurial skills, and believes it contributes to
creating a spirit of enterprise through workshops and networking with decision makers.
The need for support for teachers has been reflected in a number of projects and
initiatives undertaken in Central and Eastern Europe. An example is the Slovenian national
programme to develop enterprise and business understanding within secondary schools; the
programme was taught between September 1996 and March 1998. The overall aim was to
provide a solid base for the national development of enterprise and business understanding
within the core curriculum of all general secondary schools in Slovenia. Under this
programme a core group of teachers attended a “train the trainers” type workshop, in order
that they could disseminate their knowledge and skills to other schools across the country.
At University and Business School level, the difficulty in finding appropriate trainers
with first-hand experience of managing a business is being resolved by the Centre for
Enterprise at Leicester University (UK) through an exchange programme. The programme
recognizes that entrepreneurship might best be learned from successful entrepreneurs and that
these rarely find the time to give seminars. The scheme therefore offers academics the chance
to change places with business people for part of the week. This gives entrepreneurs the
opportunity to work within an academic institution and to share their experience of managing
an SME with students.
A number of countries have provided additional support for teachers through
dedicated web sites. In the United Kingdom, the Department of Trade and Industry Enterprise
Guide site provides suggestions to help teachers develop enterprise education and
entrepreneurial skills among pupils in the 11 to 16 age range. Through information and case
studies it shows teachers how they can incorporate enterprise education into their schemes of
work. The Enterprise Education web site in Australia has been developed with support from
the Australian Department of Education through the Enterprise Education in Schools
programme.
2.3 Resource materials and training packages
The emergence of entrepreneurship education over the past few decades has increased
the need for curricula, training packages and resource materials. The latter vary in the scope
of the information and methods presented, according to the intended socio-economic and
educational audience. At lower levels of schooling, many educational materials are intended
16
Competency-based Economies through Formation of Enterprise, a GTZ-conceived form of training to promote
small business growth.
16
to impart a basic-to-intermediate understanding of business and market systems, and will
inculcate in students a desire to learn more about entrepreneurship and business in the future.
At higher levels, texts are designed to provide a balance between theory and practice. Other
materials are designed for older students, and some are intended for young people living in
disadvantaged communities, offering them an alternative to drugs, violence, and many other
problems prevalent in the inner-city.
2.4 Partnership arrangements
National Ministries of Education are beginning to forge genuine alliances with
agencies that possess comparative advantage in various aspects of training provision. In
Western countries, this usually involves collaboration with enterprise promotion agencies,
local Chambers of Commerce, the business community, public education and training
institutions, community-based organizations and regional or local government. In developing
and transition countries, national Ministries of Education are working with international
development assistance partners, local and international NGOs, and the private sector.
Partnerships with the business community are not limited to providing infrastructure
and financial support to the implementation partner. Some programmes have established
partnerships with the local business community on the basis of linkages into local supply
chains, which further strengthen the sustainability of the programme. Two examples are the
Philippines Agribusiness project and the Mukti Sadana project in India.
Partnership arrangements
17
have proved to be a key factor in the success of many
projects and programmes.
Role of inter-governmental and bilateral agencies
In September 2000 at the United Nations in New York as part of the Millennium
Declaration, the Heads of State and Government resolved to “develop and implement
strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive
work.”
18
In preparation for this meeting, Kofi Annan issued a report entitled “We the peoples:
The role of the United Nations in the 21st century.” Here the Secretary-General first proposed
his Youth Employment Network:
Together with the heads of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization,
I am convening a high-level policy network on youth employment drawing on the most
creative leaders in private industry, civil society and economic policy to explore imaginative
approaches to this difficult challenge. I will ask this policy network to propose a set of
recommendations that I can convey to world leaders within a year. The possible sources of
solutions will include the Internet and the informal sector, especially the contribution that
small enterprises can make to employment generation.
19
17
Here, partnership means arrangements where governments, the international community, businesses and
schools commit through mutual beneficial activities to give students greater insights into questions related to the
world of work and business and to prepare them for self-employment.
18
General Assembly Resolution A/RES/55/2, para. 20.
19
We the peoples: The role of the United Nations in the 21
st
century, United Nations, New York, 2000, pp. 25-26.
17
The Secretary-General requested civil society and industry leaders to form a panel
responsible for formulating recommendations on ways to reduce youth unemployment.
20
The
panel’s recommendations
21
encourage world leaders to take personal responsibility for
translating the commitments made at the Millennium Summit into action through a specific
political process. First Heads of State and Government are invited to develop national action
plans on youth employment with targets for the creation of jobs and for the reduction of
unemployment and to present these plans to the United Nations in a year’s time. These action
plans should be based on a critical and self-critical review of past national policies.
Furthermore, ten governments are invited to volunteer to champion this process, to take the
lead in preparing their action plans and in showing the way to others.
At the international level, the Global Partnership for Youth Development (GPYD) was
launched in early 1999 by the World Bank, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and the
Kellogg Company to study, promote and invest in good examples of tri-sector partnerships in
youth development around the world. The GPYD brings together influential leaders,
multinational corporations and smaller companies, government officials, regional
development banks, overseas development assistance agencies and local and international
foundations. In many countries, this has resulted in interventions to promote and support self-
reliance through entrepreneurship and self-employment. The IYF provides the global
secretariat of the GPYD.
An example of a regional partnership with an inter-sectoral focus is the Inter-
American Working Group on Youth Development (IAWGYD). This is a consortium of
international donor agencies that supports new approaches to youth development and
participation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
22
The IAWGYD exchanges information on
best practices, jointly mobilizes technical and financial resources, collaborates on specific
projects and advocates for effective youth policies.
Another example of a regional network is the European Youth Forum, established by
national youth councils and international NGOs to represent the interests of young people
from all over Europe. It provides a platform for youth representation in government policy
and institutions and in international institutions, namely the European Union, the Council of
Europe and the United Nations. Ideas and experiences are exchanged among the network of
91 members. The main areas of implementation include: advocacy; citizenship and lifelong
20
The members of the High-Level-Panel of YEN are:
Mr. Saifuddin Abdullah, President of the Malaysian Youth Council
Mr. César Alierta, Executive President of Telefonika S.A.
Dr. Ruth C.L. Cardoso, President, Comunitas Programmes
Mr. Hernando de Soto, President, Instituto Liberdad y Democracia
Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, President, International Center for Research on Women
Mr. Bill Jordan, Secretary-General of ICFTU
Mr. Allan Larson, Former EU Director-General for Employment and Social Affairs
Mr. Rick Little, Founder of the International Youth Foundation
Ms. Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary-General of ICC
Mr. Magatte Wade, Director-General AEGETI-Sénégal
Hon. Ralph Willis, former Australian Treasurer and former Minister for Employment
Dr. Rosanna Wong, Executive Director, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
21
United Nations General Assembly, Document A/56/422.
22
The IAWGYD includes the Canadian International Development Agency, Global Meeting of Generations,
Inter-American Development Bank, Inter-American Foundation, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on
Agriculture, International Youth Foundation, Organization of American States, Pan American Health
Organization, Partners of the Americas, UNESCO, UNICEF, United Nations Youth Unit, United States Agency
for International Development, United States Peace Corps, the World Bank and Youth Service America.
18
learning; employment and social affairs; human rights and equality, global youth cooperation;
youth work development; membership and training; and communications.
Role of the business community
At international and national levels, the private sector is working directly with national
and local governments to facilitate interventions. Such partnership arrangements have helped
to strengthen curriculum areas through the engagement of mentors from the local business
community. They also help to draw the school into a broader plan for local economic and
community development. Business owners often serve on the advisory boards and curriculum
committees of secondary schools and higher education institutions, particularly vocational
training schools, technical colleges and business schools. They may also act as classroom
speakers or work placement employers.
Youth Business International (YBI), implemented by the Prince of Wales International
Business Leaders Forum (United Kingdom) is a worldwide network whose purpose is to
enable the business community to help young people into self-employment by providing
business mentoring and access to finance. The Youth Business Initiatives work with local
training and micro-credit partners, as well as organizations such as the British Council and
Shell LiveWire during the start-up and early growth stages. Participating countries and
organizations include: Youth Business Foundation, Canada; Baharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust
(BYST), India; Hambantota Youth Business Trust, Sri Lanka.
At the national level, in Norway, the Confederation of Norwegian Business and
Industry (NHO) is helping to realize the intentions in the Core Curriculum where it states that
“education shall provide learners with awareness of the variety and scope of the world of
work,” and that “the world of work is part of the school’s broader learning environment.”
The arrangement involves elementary education, secondary education and teacher education.
More specifically, the partnership contributes to the development of teaching aids designed to
make the world of business a significant part of the learning environment in schools. The
collaboration may entail students visiting businesses; businesses visiting schools (e.g. guest
lecturers); businesses adopting a class; project work on themes connected to the world of
business; and business leaders functioning as consultants to student enterprises. A consultant
is hired full-time or part-time in all regions of the country as an element of the Confederation
of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO)-Partnership.
The University Institute of Technology (IUT) in France has established a partnership
arrangement with local bankers, lawyers from the Chamber of Commerce and the APCE (the
local agency for the creation of companies) to support successful student ideas for new
businesses.
Within the non-formal sector, the Agro-Business for Rural Youth in the Philippines
and the Drug Abuse and Prevention Programme for Marginalized Youth in Asia (DAPP) are
both based on partnerships with the local business community. Products created as a result of
the skills-based training are linked into local supply chains and thereby keyed into local
economic development, which makes them more likely to be sustainable in the long term.
In Kenya, the Kenya Management Assistance Programme (K-MAP) gets large
businesses to make their middle and top managers available to the owners of small-scale
business for advice and counselling, on a voluntary basis. Such programmes are usually
aimed at the emergent entrepreneur rather than the subsistence self-employed. At the
19
international level, actors such as Shell, Compaq, Motorola and Cisco Systems have been key
players through programmes such as Shell LiveWire, Motorola XXI and others. Innovative
delivery models, such as Shell LiveWire, offer loans within an integrated package of
assistance.
The role of civil society/NGOs
A number of national and international foundations (both civil society and corporate)
have formed partnerships with national governments and NGOs to promote enterprise growth
among young entrepreneurs nationally and internationally. NGOs throughout the world, but
especially in developing countries, tend to focus on education and training opportunities for
at-risk youth.
The International Youth Foundation (IYF) has been heavily involved in raising
awareness about issues facing youth. YouthNet International is IYF’s vehicle for the
development and exchange of information on effective programmes and practices that support
the development of children and youth aged from 5 to 20. This is done by linking the field
experience of programmes around the world to academic and policy research; fostering
networking and interaction among those with common concerns and interests; organizing
workshops and meetings; disseminating published and electronic information; facilitating
partnerships and learning exchanges.
Specialized NGOs have evolved dealing with different dimensions of self-
employment and micro-enterprise. Some NGOs are concerned with the promotion of free
market values (e.g. the Urban Foundation in South Africa). Others focus entirely on small-
scale credit, product development, women entrepreneurs, or the vocational training of young
people in rural and urban situations. Here, NGOs (southern, northern and in partnership) are
probably a more significant source of support than central or local government schemes.
23
However, a very large number of NGOs are interested in training for its social benefits
above all else. They have developed frameworks for dealing with issues such as HIV/AIDS
awareness, health, environment and support for women by focusing on the holistic
development of the individual and through activities to create sustainable livelihoods.
24
Micro
finance programmes in this context are relatively new and such programmes tend to develop
much more specific linkages between different social problems affecting youth or community
development strategies.
25
NGOs concerned with vocational training are a highly diverse group, ranging from
northern organizations with worldwide coverage to those with links to a single village. There
23
There is a tendency for them to be more oriented to subsistence self-employment than the more entrepreneurial
type, and for income-generation activities to be included in larger multi-purpose, community development
projects.
24
A livelihood is everything people know, have, and do to make a living. Applied to youth, the livelihoods
approach comprises a broad and interrelated set of programmes and policies that include: giving youth
opportunities to generate and earn income; providing credit, savings and other financial services and related
training in job and business skills; developing institutions, alliances and networks for youth to advance their
economic interests; and promoting policy and social changes that improve young people’s livelihood prospects.
In many cases, training is provided in diverse skills and specialities in order to diversify the economy and reduce
reliance on one product.
25
For example, many micro-finance organizations in the hardest-hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa now offer
products specifically for AIDS-affected clients and households, although some of these products may have
limited applicability. Innovative financial products geared to AIDS-affected youth include the establishment of
education trusts for minors and allowing youth from AIDS-affected households to use micro-finance services.
20
is a variety of coverage among southern NGOs too, although very few (e.g. CIDE in Latin
America) are more than national in their scope. Some NGOs have religious origins (e.g.
CADEC in Zimbabwe); others derive from political parties (e.g. the German Konrad
Adenauer Stiftung and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung); but many have more practical origins. In
many countries, such as Kenya and India, a first generation of religious NGOs has tended to
be complemented by a second generation of more secular agencies.
2.5 Most common programme features
In spite of the broad differences in economic, social and cultural contexts for
entrepreneurship and enterprise education across regions and countries, there are nevertheless
some similarities in the way that these programmes have been conceived and are delivered at
different levels of education. All the projects and programmes suggest, to varying degrees,
that the key to promoting entrepreneurial initiative is in engaging the imagination of students,
that is, in assisting them to think of developing their own business ideas, by showing them, at
least in part, what it could be like to establish and run their own businesses.
Most programmes tend to combine classroom-based instruction with mentoring,
guidance and counselling, practical experience and a menu of support that is adapted to the
socio-economic circumstances of the participants and is flexible enough to evolve as their
needs and priorities change. In North America, not-for-profits specializing in enterprise and
entrepreneurship education are now servicing programmes in both the formal and non-formal
sectors. In the developing world, toolkits and methodologies such as KAB and SIYB from
ILO, CEFE from GTZ, the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative and Street Kids
International, to name a few, have been developed and widely replicated.
An important part of stimulating the imagination in this way is the process of
“learning-by-doing”, or experiential learning, which nurtures the personal qualities,
characteristics and attitudes of successful entrepreneurs. The learner reflects on personal
experience and relates it to the theoretical aspects, creating a dynamic relationship. Repeated
cycles of learning from classroom experiences are the essence of the entrepreneurial way of
learning.
A common theme running through entrepreneurship and enterprise education
programmes, irrespective of socio-economic context, is that they are often delivered within
the framework of partnership arrangements and coalitions at both national and international
levels. The rise in popularity of public/private sector partnership arrangements within the
formal sector is often primarily to facilitate learning and promote sustainability within the
framework of a coherent plan for local economic development. In Western countries, they
often take the form of strengthened cooperation between education and training authorities
and business associations and enterprise boards. The Golden Vale Young Entrepreneurs
Scheme Awards (YES) in Ireland, for example, is carried out in association with City and
County Enterprise Boards throughout the country.
In developing countries, strategic partnerships are formed to enable the Centre for
Education and Enterprise Development (South Africa) to deliver a holistic and integrated
programme to its target group. The private sector, such as Shell LiveWire in Singapore, runs
an outreach campaign to ensure that potential entrepreneurs outside the student population are
able to participate in workshops. It also offers an awards scheme and a mentoring programme.
21
3. Findings at different levels of education
The following part of this working paper presents the lessons learned from
programmes implemented at different levels of education. The programme descriptions are
listed in the Directory under headings which follow the structure of this chapter.
3.1 Secondary level
3.1.1 Overview
In numerous countries around the world, entrepreneurship and enterprise education are
being integrated into secondary schools (in some countries already at primary level) as part of
the core curriculum, or as an optional subject or after-school activity such as after-school
clubs, summer camps, and weekend workshops.
Programmes aimed at awareness-raising, motivation and behavioural changes are
targeting pupils from 5 to 8 years. Practical experience in enterprises lasting from one to three
weeks for the age group 14 to 16 is compulsory in some countries, e.g. Australia, Germany or
France. Students aged 15 to 19 follow programmes on business plan development and micro-
enterprise start-up as part of school activities in schemes like the YES programme. Often
these programmes are organized as competitions and the winners are sanctioned with awards
or prizes.
The tools and resources used generally depend on the country context. The important
element in successful programmes is that they are based on experiential learning and
teamwork, which promotes initiative and responsibility through ownership of the process. The
models of delivery include:
- Subject-based enterprises
Secondary school teachers provide learners with the opportunity to work in groups to
set up and run subject-related enterprise projects. The aim of such an approach is to motivate
pupils to learn and to help them to see the relevance of the subject to the world outside school.
- Mini-enterprises and mini-companies
These programmes can take place within lessons, as cross-curricular off-timetable
events or as out-of-school activities. The pupils decide on a product or service which they
produce and sell to customers. Sometimes start-up capital is provided by a local bank in the
form of a loan. In mini-companies, finance is raised from shareholders. Members of the group
take on different roles: producing, marketing, selling, accounting, etc. The enterprise usually
ends with a report of the group’s activity.
In some cases, learners are also encouraged to engage in portfolio management or
even e-commerce and are assisted through a combination of mentoring, competitions, awards
schemes and work placement. Such activities are seen to reinforce most areas of the broader
curricula, including maths, science, art and languages.
The choice of focus is determined at the particular school and is based on the interests
of the staff and pupils involved, as well as the nature of local resources and markets.
Programme costs are usually met by national education systems, although enterprising
22
schools can also identify sponsoring companies, which provide mentors and advisers for the
student group and work with teachers. In fact, members of the local business and voluntary
community are often encouraged to become involved or offer entrepreneurship programmes
in schools by providing volunteers for classroom instruction and specialized curricula for
entrepreneurial studies.
3.1.2 Developed countries
Entrepreneurship education in all its aspects is commonly offered in the United States,
Canada and Australia. It is becoming more common in Europe. Curriculum guidelines,
materials and resources for enterprise programmes and interventions in industrialized
countries tend to be fairly advanced, relying on specially designed supplementary course
materials, multimedia and Internet. Interventions are facilitated through group – and one-to-
one mentoring with volunteers from the business and not-for-profit community, work
placements, entrepreneurship competitions, etc. In addition, students can participate in trade
fairs, end of year events through which students win performance awards, and national and
international business simulation networks on the Internet.
Programmes at secondary level are either designed and supplied by national education
systems (often the case in Europe) or are purchased from not-for-profits specializing in
enterprise education (often the case in the United States). Some schools, especially in
economically disadvantaged areas, tend to work with other schools on the same programmes,
enabling students to share their experiences.
Teachers are trained in specialized courses and seminars. In the United States, in-
service workshops are now being organized as part of teacher conferences for groups of
teachers in the same discipline. Because funding for these workshops requires commitment
from educational leaders at the school and state level, efforts have increased to communicate
the importance of entrepreneurship education at secondary level to school managers and
administrators through conferences and newsletters.
3.1.3 Transition and developing countries
Politicians in transition countries, particularly in South-East Europe, are more and
more aware of the need for entrepreneurship education at school. However, most of the
programmes are implemented as a trial run rather than on a broad base.
In developing countries, entrepreneurship education at secondary level is rather
limited and the degree of sophistication depends on the resources available to the school.
Interventions are most frequently funded by inter-governmental organizations, bilateral
technical assistance partners or international NGOs.
3.2 Technical and vocational education
3.2.1 Overview
In the past, policy makers and implementers have often viewed industry in narrowly
modern sector-oriented terms. National technical and vocational education and training
(TVET) systems were designed in a way that nurtures certain skills and values in the
expectation that graduates would progress into the formal labour market. Furthermore, rural
education and training have often suffered from the tendency for provision at local level to
23
reflect national planning directives focusing on the dominant sector of the national economy
rather than local needs.
Given the turbulence and uncertainty of different market sectors, the rigid emphasis on
preparation for waged employment is diminishing. Young people with the potential to go into
business are being helped with opportunities to apply their technical knowledge in a
commercial environment or to participate in creating and developing a real company that
markets its own products. Some countries have also established small business centres as part
of broader efforts to stimulate entrepreneurship. These usually offer consultancy and
counselling services to recent vocational school graduates and provide need-based training for
the same target group.
Traditional public sector TVET is still the most common delivery mechanism;
however, there is now a wider range of courses available, frequently sponsored by
international development assistance partners, the private sector and international NGOs.
There is also a variety of coverage among southern NGOs, although very few (e.g. CIDE in
Latin America) are more than national in their scope. Such programmes are delivered either
through government channels or independent centre facilities in close collaboration with
national counterparts. The ILO programme “Know about Business” (KAB) is specially
designed for vocational training centres and is already field tested in several countries in
Africa, Latin America and Central Asia.
Entrepreneurship education combined with vocational training can have a strong
impact on business creation, as apprentices are exposed to the world of work if they go
through enterprise-based training.
3.2.2 Developed countries
The main emphasis of the European Union Member States’ efforts to reduce youth
unemployment has been on making vocational education and training more attractive and
relevant to young people. More countries are also exploring new ways of improving access to
the labour market through changing the rules governing apprenticeship or adjusting the
regulations on unemployment benefits, and by providing subsidies or other incentives to
employers who take on young workers. Many programmes now provide work experience as
an integral part of training, either in firms or in simulated work environments such as the
“Work Centres” in Greece.
The social partners, and especially employers, are involved in the development of
training. Their involvement has come about through national agreements (e.g. Italy),
participation in apprenticeship provision in countries with a form of dual system (e.g.
Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland), or through agreements, or
Compacts, between employers and young people in training, such as in the United Kingdom.
Some countries, notably Belgium and Germany, offer pre-entry courses for young people
lacking the necessary formal qualifications. Other countries, for example Ireland, Italy and the
United Kingdom, are developing forms of integrated provision to ensure that the various
qualifications and programmes link together and provide coherent progression pathways for
young people entering the labour market.
24
3.2.3 Transition countries
In Central and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States,
vocational education and training in the past was tailored to the needs of large companies
employing excessive numbers of staff, with low levels of innovation and productivity.
Ministries of Education or sector ministries in charge of vocational education and training
were closely involved in defining the scope, contents and length of vocational programmes,
thus encouraging high rigidity and fragmentation within the system.
Since 1989, the breadth, range and depth of the proposed and implemented reforms in
vocational and technical training are extraordinary.
26
They concern every level and sector of
the system: legislation, management and administration, financing, vocational education and
training institutions, programmes and personnel. They also include the creation of new
institutions and the design of completely new types of curricula. The speed of the reform
process is also quite exceptional.
Technical and vocational education remains the responsibility of national Ministries of
Education. However programmes are frequently designed and delivered within the framework
of inter-governmental and bilateral technical assistance partnerships and often within regional
development frameworks (for example, PHARE and TACIS in transition countries).
However, there are also examples of successful transfer of know-how and local capacity
building, for example, through the Know-How Fund, which has been operational in Slovakia
for some years.
The ILO KAB programme has been introduced successfully in the Central Asian
Republic of Kyrgyzstan. After the training of a group of teachers and a test phase in a number
of training centres, the Government will use the KAB training package and methodology in
all training centres of the country. The Republic of Kazakhstan is also preparing to introduce
KAB in their vocational training system. Since September 2003 it has become part of the
national curriculum for vocational training
3.2.4 Developing countries
There is now recognition that national training systems must provide flexible training
opportunities that are adapted to urban and rural contexts and suggest alternative livelihoods
to both agriculture and the traditional, but shrinking, labour markets. Such opportunities must
be relevant to everyday contexts and the lives of young people.
Developing countries have been slow to develop clear policy guidelines for reforms to
TVET systems within their formal education systems and the implementation of reforms
remains highly dependent on external assistance from aid agencies. Furthermore, while
technical colleges are being encouraged to be more responsive to industry, the planning and
service delivery system makes this difficult because of under-resourcing. In such a situation
enterprise-based apprenticeship training including the informal sector constitutes a largely
untapped reservoir for young people.
Therefore, countries are slowly beginning to reorient themselves through partnerships
and collaborative arrangements with overseas universities, UN agencies and the private
sector. Such partnerships facilitate knowledge transfer and provide financial assistance. For
26
Source: The role of vocational education and training in transition countries: The case of Central and Eastern
Europe and the New Independent States, European Training Foundation (ETF), April 1996.
25
example, the Netherlands Government has been active in helping the Government of Zambia
to set up Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs) while the German Government has
supported the introduction of the Integrated Skills Training for Employment Promotion (IN-
STEP). Influential bilateral development agencies include USAID and DFID.
Some national training agencies have also been swift to adopt Entrepreneurial Skills
Development Programmes (ESDPs), which are increasingly popular in Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean and Latin America. Further, a programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat has
led to the development of Entrepreneurial Skills Development Guidelines and the launching
of pilot projects in several member countries.
Usually the demand for vocational training far exceeds government capacities and
facilities, especially in rural areas. It has thus become necessary to work with external training
partners and to subcontract training to ‘reputable’ master craftworkers. In the latter case,
methodologies have been created for training teachers at vocational level, particularly through
specialized development assistance frameworks such as CEFE (created by GTZ) or
EMPRETEC
27
(developed by UNCTAD). In terms of finding skilled instructors, CIDE-Chile
and TRYSEM-India have successfully hired local artisans to carry out training. These people
are usually paid every month according to the number of young people reached and they
profit from the sale of goods produced by trainees. They also receive a subsidy on the
purchase of necessary materials and a final payment for each trainee who graduates.
The experience of TRYSEM illustrates a number of problems, which are also found in
other rural vocational training programmes. One potential tension is between the various sub-
target groups of the rural poor. Another derives from the vast scale and complexity of rural
youth un- (or under-) employment, the almost unlimited demand for training and the acute
resource constraints. One consequence for TRYSEM (and other programmes which sub-
contract vocational training) is the risk that a non-target group (i.e. the master craftworkers)
will become the major beneficiaries of a programme intended to alleviate the poverty of rural
youth.
Overall, there are still not many cases of successful government-sponsored vocational
training for self-employment in the informal sector, in spite of statistics showing that the
majority of new jobs are being created in the so-called informal sector in developing and
transition countries. The major constraints identified by studies investigating the informal
sector include the lack of education and training opportunities, the lack of adequate technical
and managerial skills, lack of access to credit, and the indifferent and sometimes hostile
attitude of the government (ILO World Employment Report 1998-99).
3.3 University level
3.3.1 Overview
In order to satisfy the needs of those who have chosen self-employment/enterprise
creation, many universities now offer entrepreneurship courses at under-graduate and
graduate levels within their Business Schools or the relevant faculty. Such courses are more
common in industrialized countries. Where they have been established in developing and
transition countries, this has usually been made possible through a transfer of knowledge and
know-how from universities or external partners with established teaching and learning
methodologies.
27
EMPRETEC (Emprendedores
tecnologia) is an international programme of UNCTAD.26
Unlike more traditional areas of study, entrepreneurship courses tend to consist of a
varied assortment of classes and clubs, majors and co-majors, certificates and credits. Some
universities offer degrees in entrepreneurship. Many courses offer a thematic approach to
matters relating to business creation (e.g. control and business plan development, finance,
personnel, legal aspects of businesses, etc). Others offer modules, either as part of a
specialized degree or as part of another major. Some courses even have a sectoral focus such
as “e-Entrepreneurship”, “Entrepreneurship in developing countries” or “Social
entrepreneurship”.
Most programmes also use a variety of teaching methods and tools such as case
studies, internships, guest lectures, external review of student assignments by business
managers, mentoring and business simulation. They draw on a wide range of subjects to teach
students about enterprise creation, organizational structure, new ventures and the law, or
management. Furthermore, many universities have created Centres for Entrepreneurship,
Entrepreneurial Societies or action-learning units in order to support entrepreneurship in all
disciplines and help build understanding of how new ventures can best be supported from
start-up through to maturity. Often, these Centres enable students to experience
entrepreneurship through undertaking consultancy projects with local small businesses or
setting up and running their own businesses.
Another major factor for the success of university entrepreneurship courses in
developed, developing and transition countries is the establishment of linkages with local
Chambers of Commerce, commercial banks, economic development agencies, enterprise
boards and business development support institutions.
3.3.2 Developed countries
One noticeable trend in industrialized countries is the increase in university level
competitions and awards to stimulate new enterprise creation, especially in the United States
and Europe. They are often sponsored by large businesses, are linked to Entrepreneurship
Centres (see above) or are run in cooperation with local enterprise agencies or Chambers of
Commerce. The participants are usually required to be current students, recent graduates or
business-founding teams that include at least one university student. Winners of local
university competitions sometimes go on to national (and international) contests.
For example, teams from around the world competed at the Moot Corp International
Business Plan Competition at the University of Texas, Austin, described as “the granddaddy
of business competitions”. This year’s contest featured 26 teams, including one each from
licensed Moot Corp competitions in Africa, Asia, Australia and Canada. Contestants
competed for a first prize of $15,000. Hewlett Packard also offered $100,000 in goods and
services to one lucky team that agreed to launch an Internet company.
In addition to organizing competitions and teaching enrolled students, some
universities also provide education and training to existing business owners and
entrepreneurs. In the United States, the FastTrac programme is offered on a non-credit basis
and is designed to provide entrepreneurs with business knowledge, leadership skills and
professional connections in order to create or expand businesses.
In addition, some universities, such as the University of Southampton (United
Kingdom), spend time on knowledge transfer to the private sector through links with the
Research and Development (R&D) units of large companies. In fact, universities may even
27
receive partial sponsorship from large companies for this purpose. The technology transfer
group in Southampton works with business, investors and all university members to help
commercialize university intellectual property, develop commercial partnerships and spin out
companies.
In Scotland, several universities have begun to diffuse entrepreneurship concepts
throughout higher education within the framework of a campaign initiated by Scottish
Enterprise in the late 1990s. Assistance and advice is provided on ways in which Scottish
universities can enhance, encourage and develop entrepreneurship education and promote an
enterprise culture that supports technology entrepreneurship. This is expected to result in
more business start-ups emerging from Scottish universities into the commercial marketplace.
Similarly, in Germany, the recent “Gründungskontakte” initiative has created a virtual
market place for industry and universities/colleges, giving knowledge agents in tertiary
education the chance to present their ideas, inventions and projects as the potential founders
of new businesses. It also provides SMEs with a forum for presenting specific R&D
requirements and finding out what higher education has to offer them.
3.3.3 Transition countries
In transition countries, the creation of entrepreneurship courses has sometimes been
made through knowledge transfer from European universities. In Slovenia a joint European
project (Tempus) has been established under the title ‘Undergraduate Education Centre for
Managing Small and Medium-Sized Companies’. One of the most successful study
programmes for managers of small and medium-sized companies in Europe, practised at the
University of Gothenburg and the University of Boras in Sweden, will be transferred into
Slovenian higher education through this project.
3.3.4 Developing countries
Entrepreneurship courses at university level are much less widespread in developing
countries. While the content of the courses which do exist is usually similar to that on offer in
Western countries, the sophistication of the tools varies according to the resources available.
In Kenya, a Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development is based at Jomo
Kenyatta University College of Agriculture and Technology. The Centre’s activities are
geared towards entrepreneurship, managerial and extension oriented research,
entrepreneurship studies and technological research, consultancy, rural enterprise
development, small and medium enterprise, information dissemination and appropriate
technology, and the organization of industry dialogues, conferences and appreciation
seminars. It is a ‘centre of excellence and innovation in the field of small-, medium-, and
large enterprise training, promotion and development’ (RCED brochure).
Some universities have successfully borrowed methodologies established elsewhere.
For example, the Institute for Small-Scale Industries, University of the Philippines (UP ISSI)
promotes entrepreneurship and enterprise education using and adapting various models, such
as those of McClelland, Management Systems International (famous for its PECs), GTZ
(CEFE model) and the ILO among others.
28
3.4 Post formal education programmes
3.4.1 Overview
Many children slip through the net of the formal school system at an early age,
because their families cannot afford fees for tuition and materials, or because they have to
contribute to family income, or because they are simply uninterested in the school curricula.
This is a particularly big problem in developing countries with a high incidence of poverty. In
such countries the Ministries of Education are often hindered by a lack of resources and weak
administrative systems.
In response to the problem of vulnerability, a diverse range of support is now available
to young people to either start their own business and/or become self-employed in the formal
or informal sectors. Interventions include the provision of credit, mentoring, counselling
support, outreach, awards and competitions, and the training of trainers. Implementation is
through a variety of partners and modalities.
In difficult circumstances, young people are helped to become self-reliant through
sustainable income-generating activities, creating their own small businesses, sharpening their
academic skills, forming positive attitudes about themselves and their communities, as well as
acquiring the leadership skills required in the workplace. They benefit from a mentor’s
knowledge, resources and community connections. Most programmes adopt an action-
learning and low literacy approach and try to integrate the natural learning processes and
assets of youth.
A broader model has also evolved recently around the concept of life skills. This
approach encompasses the psycho-social aspects of dealing with issues related to
vulnerability and poverty, as well as training for self-employment or enterprise creation.
Special consultants work with young people on individual problems when needed.
Training providers include governmental and non-governmental organizations, church
groups and small-scale enterprises (including family subsistence groups). Programmes are
usually implemented at centre facilities, public schools, or as after-school programmes at
community-based organizations and intensive summer business camps. In developing
countries, interventions are often a collaborative effort between United Nations agencies,
bilateral technical assistance partners, national and international NGOs and the private sector.
General programmes facilitate access to capital and offer a package of support
services to ensure that the business idea has a high likelihood of surviving beyond the critical
start-up phase and the first two or three years of trading. Certain programmes are open to all
young people, whether they are currently self-employed or wishing to set up their own
business as entrepreneurs.
Micro finance programmes are already common, but have recently begun to develop
much more specific linkages between different social problems affecting youth or with
community development strategies. Programmes specifically target at-risk, marginalized or
socially excluded youth, minority or indigenous groups, young girls and women, or else they
have a geographic focus, i.e. rural areas or urban slum dwellings. They deal with a wide range
of specific issues, such as vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, drug dependency, teenage pregnancy
and they attempt to do this within a holistic framework of self-empowerment or self-reliance.
29
3.4.2 Developed countries
Developed economies include the promotion of youth employment in their active
labour market policies. They offer placement services, short-term training courses, subsidies
for enterprises employing young people, and in recent years also the promotion of self-
employment and small enterprise start-up. Young people who have had at least one job can
use unemployment benefits for their start-up capital.
Another approach that is becoming more common is to promote small enterprises as
employment generators and as vocational training providers. Enterprises play the key role in
reducing youth unemployment and the promotion of SMEs therefore favours youth
employment.
A recent phenomenon is the launch of programmes that specifically target potential
entrepreneurs who are still in higher education. This is now quite common in the United
States and the United Kingdom, as well as in France and Germany. Other programmes target
unemployed diploma holders, offering a systematic form of contact and support to young
people who have finished their education and training and have not found work.
NGOs, foundations and Chambers of Commerce implement a large number of
programmes aiming to help young people create their own business. Worldwide junior
chambers of entrepreneurs such as the Junior Chamber International or the Young
Entrepreneurs of Europe help young people become entrepreneurs and coach them during the
start-up phase.
Bridging the gap between young business starters who need loans and banks which
may grant them is the objective of Youth Business International set up by the Prince’s Trust
in the United Kingdom in 1983. This successful programme also operates in transition
countries and developing countries.
3.4.3 Transition countries
The restructuring of economies based on central planning and state-owned large
enterprises led to huge unemployment but also to the emergence of a micro- and small
enterprise sector often operating in the informal economy. This sector now accounts for the
largest share of employment, and policies and programmes that promote enterprise
development are widespread. Governments are learning from experience gained in Western
Europe and North America and adapting Western approaches with the help of technical
cooperation programmes and international NGOs. National NGOs continues to give
assistance in enterprise creation to youth and other specific target groups. ILO’s
entrepreneurship training concept Start and Improve Your Business is largely used in the
Balkans, the CIS and the Central Asian Republics. In some countries the National
Employment Service uses the training model in the framework of active labour market
measures.
Entrepreneurship training, mentorship, counselling, business clubs and start-up
financing programmes are quite common in all these countries. However, outreach is still
quite limited due to the high rate of youth unemployment and the scarcity of resources.
30
3.4.4 Developing countries
The vulnerability of young people is an increasingly widespread problem in developed
countries, particularly in lagging economic regions where traditional labour markets are
shrinking and skills no longer match labour market requirements. Being able to make
decisions and choices on career options and life paths is the key to self-respect, dignity and
poverty reduction. However in some circumstances, education in itself is not a solution,
especially if it is not relevant to the real life income-earning strategies of young people living
in poverty, enabling them to become self-reliant and to manage their own lives.
A number of programmes have appeared over the last two decades recognizing the
needs of young people who would like to explore entrepreneurship or self-employment as a
career option. There are also programmes for young people who have slipped through the
education net. Employment opportunities in the formal economy (in countries where it is
well-developed) may be limited and young people who have initiated their own income-
generation activities in the informal economy may have encountered obstacles in formalizing
their venture because they lack access to business advice and finance. Through many
programmes, young people learn job search skills, find employment and training
opportunities and gain work experience, benefiting from the mentor’s knowledge, resources
and community connections. Private NGOs, foundations, workers’ associations and
federations, and international technical assistance partners are playing a central role.
Most enterprise and entrepreneurship promotion programmes are open to all young
people, whether they are currently self-employed or wish to set up their own business as
entrepreneurs. The ILO Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme does not
specially target youth; nevertheless 40 to 50 per cent of training participants are under 25 and
approximately half are women.
The Commonwealth Organisation, through the Commonwealth Youth Programme,
has launched a Credit Initiative (CYCI) which is a small enterprise scheme providing small-
scale loans, training and enterprise development to unemployed people with a business idea.
CYCI provides these services using low interest rates; low training costs; partnerships with
non-governmental organizations; peer networking to encourage saving and loan repayment;
ongoing training and monitoring of enterprise.
Private sector corporations have also launched programmes to support young
entrepreneurs. For example, Shell LiveWire is an international investment initiative launched
by Shell in 1982 in the United Kingdom. Now active in over 15 countries, this scheme targets
youths in the 16 to 29 age range with an idea for their own business. The programme also
offers help to young entrepreneurs seeking to expand their company. Diageo, another
multinational corporation, launched the “Skills for Life” programme covering a range of
activities from raising levels of achievement in schools, to helping young people develop their
entrepreneurial skills.
Private sector banks such as Citibank are realizing the benefits of identifying young
entrepreneurs. “Banking on Enterprise” is an international initiative launched by the CitiCorps
Foundation in 1995 making small loans available to impoverished population groups around
the world to start and expand small businesses. Awards and competitions also help to target
potential entrepreneurs. The “Motorola Mission XXI” is a pro-active model programme to
develop young entrepreneurs in the application of microelectronics and telecommunications
in Latin America.
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3.5 Youth programmes for specific target groups
3.5.1 At-risk and marginalized youth
Other entrepreneurship or enterprise promotion programmes target specifically at-risk
and marginalized youth, dealing with a wide range of specific issues, such as vulnerability to
HIV/AIDS, drug dependency, teenage pregnancy. Such programmes attempt to achieve their
aims within a holistic framework of self-empowerment or self-reliance, and they usually build
on a livelihoods approach.
28
A broader model has recently evolved around the concept of life
skills which encompasses the psycho-social aspects of dealing with vulnerability and poverty,
as well as training for self-employment or enterprise creation.
The Youth Outreach Programme (YOP) in Australia recruits and trains local mentors
to work intensively on a one-on-one basis with young people to help them identify their own
potential, build personal and career goals and develop links to support services. Special
consultants work with young people on individual problems when needed, providing drug and
alcohol counselling. The programme also serves as an advocate for young people in the
community and an agent for community change, using community development and liaison
activities to promote models of effective service delivery in rural areas. YOP attracts young
people because it approaches them in a flexible, non-controlling and non-threatening way.
In Sweden, the Communicare (a not-for-profit) has developed a labour market project
called “Young and One’s Own”, which began in 1993. The idea is to give young unemployed
people in the 18 to 30 age group the chance to start, run and liquidate a company through a
combination of theory, practical experience and entrepreneurial activities.
In Azerbaijan, the Center for Youth Starting Business was established in February
2001. The main goal is to bring young people together and assist them in acquiring a basic
knowledge of business before actually launching their own venture.
In India, an extremely successful model is the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST).
Launched in 1991, BYST is a public, non-profit organization targeting economically and
socially underprivileged young people with no formal education in the 18 to 35 age group.
One of the main conditions is that participants should be functionally literate. The programme
places strong emphasis on active mentorship and is implemented in partnership with
government, the corporate sector, vocational training institutes and entrepreneur training
institutions and small-scale industry associations in India.
In South Africa, the Centre for Education and Enterprise Development (CEED) is a
not-for profit organization established in response to the problems faced by black youth in the
communities south of Durban, which have minimal resources for young people. Programmes
initially focused on life skills and vocational guidance. However, as the needs of youth in
both the community and the broader environment changed, CEED shifted its focus to
unemployment issues in urban areas. In an attempt to increase young people’s access to
training and the SME sector, CEED has established branches in the Durban Metro Region, in
the Ugu Region and Uthungulu Region.
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There is a broad and interrelated set of programmes and policies that include: giving youth salaried jobs and
other opportunities to earn income; providing credit, savings and other financial services and related training in
job and business skills; developing institutions, alliances and networks for youth to advance their economic
interests; and promoting policy and social changes that improve young people’s livelihood prospects.
32
The Joint Enrichment Project (JEP) in South Africa was founded in 1986 by the South
African Council of Churches (SACC) and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference
(SACBC) in response to the alienation of black youth from the disintegrating education
system. The JEP is a national youth development organization based in Gauteng Province.
Since its establishment, the JEP has initiated a range of pilot programmes investigating ways
of providing young people with technical training, restoring self-confidence and self-esteem,
teaching the ethic and discipline of work, coping with post-traumatic stress and the legacy of
violence, developing positive peer culture and fundamentally remedying the skills and
knowledge deficit left by apartheid.
In Zambia, the DAPP Children’s Town is an outcome of the USAID Rural Youth
Initiative. Children’s Town was created in collaboration with the International Youth
Foundation in Chalambanyama, Zambia in 1990 to provide a home, school and training centre
for vulnerable children in the marginalized, rural Chibombo District. More specifically, the
target group includes AIDS orphans, former street children and local at-risk children. The
programme provides vocational and life skills training, games and recreational activities
designed to improve decision-making skills, and activities to improve self-esteem,
interpersonal skills, a sense of personal responsibility, enhanced family relations,
employability and knowledge of rights. The age of the target group ranges from 8 to 20, 55
per cent of whom are male. These groups are involved in producing food, maintaining
programme facilities and generating income through selling farm produce.
3.5.2 Rural areas
In developing and transition countries, the majority of the population still live in rural
areas and the local economy is based on agriculture and agribusiness. Rural areas have been
particularly affected by economic changes over the past two decades. For example in Zambia,
after 1992 the government decided that it would no longer set prices for farmers and withdrew
completely from agricultural marketing. The government also withdrew subsidies and credit
for the production of the major crop – maize. As result, 90 per cent of farmers, who were
solely dependent on maize production, now had to source their own inputs, price their
produce and identify markets if they were to stay in business. Since then, poverty in rural
households and urban drift has been on the increase.
The continuing pace of rural-urban migration throughout the world has aroused the
concern of governments. Youth in rural areas, whether in developed, developing or transition
countries, are more restricted than their urban peers in terms of access to and choice of
education, training and employment opportunities. Geographical dispersion not only limits
physical access to opportunities, but leads to dispersion of relevant information: i.e.,
information on courses, youth initiatives, scholarships, etc. Many young people leave in
search of work in urban areas, while those that stay are at risk of becoming transient or
homeless if they do not find work. They may drift into criminality, substance abuse or other
problems.
In Australia, the Youth Outreach Programme (YOP) uses an innovative mentoring
model to provide at-risk young people in Western Australia with links, opportunities and
supports in education, employment and training, while addressing personal needs such as
accommodation, financial security, family mediation and counselling. In collaboration with
its young clients, their families and the local community, it tries to address the issues young
people face in a holistic manner.
33
In Slovenia, the Country Springs project was established in October 2001 within the
framework of the national policy “Developing Entrepreneurship and Creativity Among
Young People”. This programme targets school leavers and unemployed youth in rural areas
and aims to identify business opportunities for young people who have taken over farms or
are potential managers in the rural economy or in agriculture-related business. As part of the
project, various motivation activities are carried out, as well as workshops, special training
programmes and the creation of a database of business information following the “one-stop-
shop” principle.
In India, the Directorate of Rural Development and District Rural Development
Agency has created a programme (TRYSEM) focusing on training rural youth for self-
employment. All trainees are from families living below the poverty line, with priority given
to those from the officially defined poorest stratum. At least 30 per cent of beneficiaries are
from Scheduled Castes and Tribes and 33 per cent are female. Ex-bonded labourers and the
handicapped are also targeted. The “Skills Development for Self-Reliance” (SDSR)
programme is part of ongoing efforts by the ILO, UNDP and SIDA to overcome the
weaknesses of rural training in Africa. In Kenya, this has developed into the Kenya Youth
Training and Employment Creation Project (KYTEC). KYTEC seeks not only to increase the
(self) employment opportunities of rural youth, but also aims at the reorientation of Youth
Polytechnics throughout Kenya towards this goal.
In Paraguay, most residents live in rural areas and schooling is severely limited.
Peasant farmers often rely upon a single crop, exhausting the land and forcing family
members to seek work elsewhere. In response, CECTEC, a non-profit rural development and
education institution, founded Educación y Capacitación de Jóvenes Campesinos [ECJC]
(Education and Training for Rural Youth) in 1986. A residential agricultural school for the
children of peasant farmers in Itapua, Paraguay, ECJC develops the capacities of rural youth
and improves their employment prospects within their communities. The programme
combines theoretical and technical training at the school with work on the families’ farms and
in the community. Students, aged 14 to 19, divide their time between campus and home. They
plan strategies and conduct projects on their families’ farms and offer their skills locally, such
as giving veterinary aid to farmers. Many of the 200 graduates have remained in the rural
areas. To broaden its impact, CECTEC provides assistance to other agricultural schools in
Paraguay wishing to adapt its model.
In the Philippines, the Agro-Mechanical Training and Entrepreneurship for Rural
Youth Project was launched in 1999 at the Don Bosco Training Centre and is being
implemented with the framework of the Global Alliance for Youth Development. It is a
mechanical skills training programme focused on promoting skills in repair, maintenance and
fabrication of small farm machinery. The trainees are out-of-school boys between 17 and 22
who come from small farming families and communities. The project also engages these
young boys in the establishment, management and operation of local agro-service centres.
The project has already established working relationships with a number of companies in the
Philippines where trainees are placed for employment after graduation. The development of
the curriculum and machine prototypes is a joint effort between the Don Bosco Technical
School, the International Rice Research Institute and PhilRice, a government company that
links agricultural manufacturing companies with farmers’ cooperatives. The government’s
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority provided the initial laboratory
equipment. The recruitment of the trainees is facilitated by the Social Action Centre of the
Philippines and the local government of Llanera, a beneficiary community.
34
In Thailand, the Rural Career Programme is a focus programme of the Global
Partnership for Youth Development. Implemented by the National Council for Youth
Development, the project has leveraged ideas and resources from the International Youth
Foundation, Shell International, the Thai Government, local partners and communities to
create non-traditional career options for youth returning from urban areas following the
decline of Thailand’s economy.
In Zambia, the Agribusiness Association of Zambia was launched in 1998 by a group
of final year students at the School of Agriculture of the University of Zambia. They launched
an organization called the Potential Agribusiness Association of Zambia (PAAZ) to promote
agriculture as a business. The organization provides training in use of the Internet to women
and youth whose livelihoods depend entirely on farming. PAAZ provides a nerve centre for
marketing and production information on alternative agricultural enterprises that are suitable
for small-scale farming. The organization trains resource-poor farmers in enterprise
management and entrepreneurship skills and links farmers to micro-financing institutions,
out-grower schemes and agribusiness companies. Achievements to date include: a feasibility
study on alternatives to maize production which were promoted to farmers through field
demonstrations in four districts; the creation of information centres in two districts with
access to Internet, telephones and faxes where farmers can find out market prices and
opportunities; the establishment of ten youth and women cooperative shops in Lusaka and
Chibombo district; the publication of a quarterly newsletter in a variety of local languages and
activities to build membership, which now stands at 2,000 smallholder farmers.
3.5.3 Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
Information and communication technologies are permeating all aspects of business
and wider society and are emerging as one of the key drivers of economic growth and wealth
creation. By reducing costs and increasing the speed of communications, they have already
played a major role in globalizing the production of goods, the provision of services and the
operation of financial markets. Their broader application is having a dramatic impact on
employment patterns and skill requirements, generating new sources of employment such as
wireless technology, web-based enterprise and business services, e-commerce, e-education
and e-health.
In Finland, the “Entrepreneurship in Cyberspace” project maximizes the potential of
ICTs for education and training purposes. This is a distance education programme
implemented at the upper secondary school level (DIEPES) as part of a larger distance
education project. The programme provides a flexible way of studying for budding
entrepreneurs who are working at the same time. The primary target group is composed of
entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs. The reasons for setting up the programme were to
provide new skills and knowledge in a way that would be available to everyone irrespective
of time and place. The programme is run on the Internet (information, readings, exams,
literature, reviews) but also uses radio programmes.
Outside the urban areas in most developing and transition countries, the
communications infrastructure is usually poor with few telephone lines and even fewer
computers. Electricity supply may be sporadic. Internet access is difficult and expensive, even
in urban areas. The lack of information and communication infrastructure results in the
marginalization of rural communities. Young entrepreneurs are unable to access information
when they need it.
35
In Poland, the “Young Minds in Motion” programme sponsored by Microsoft
demonstrates how educational investments by a global company are helping to leverage
government and community partnerships in a resource-poor region, where civil society, self-
help and volunteerism are only just taking root. The project builds on work already carried out
by the World Bank and the International Youth Foundation to make ICTs available in rural
areas throughout Poland.
The lack of access to information affects the rural poor more than any other sector of
society. In particular, the lack of market information (on commodity prices, suppliers, etc.)
leads to loss of income and exploitation of rural entrepreneurs by middlemen. In Zambia, the
“Internet for Agribusiness Pilot”, funded by USAID, is a programme designed to assist young
Zambian farming entrepreneurs to learn how to use the Internet effectively as a business
decision-making tool and to disseminate knowledge through farming associations and
communities. The Leland Initiative from the USAID/Africa Bureau installed hardware and
provided technical training for the national officers and rural district offices of the Zambia
National Farmers Union (ZNFU). Pilot activities included designing, developing and
conducting applied training for the ZNFU staff.
The Zahedan IT Centre is located in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in Iran, which
despite great potential and ethnic diversity, ranks last on almost every development indicator
among Iran’s 28 provinces. The Zahedan IT Centre takes information and communication
technology to one of the most remote areas of the country. The Zahedan IT Centre was
opened in February 2002 after more than a year of planning, focused on conducting needs
assessments and developing partnerships. The Centre will provide ongoing training in
information technology to the local population, but will especially target youth and women.
The Centre will also administer a robotics programme targeting youth.
To address the needs of low-skilled workers, and especially female heads of
household, an e-shop will be established through the Zahedan IT Centre, where the local
handicrafts of Blanch women will be made available on the Internet to an international
market. Blanch needlework is one of the most beautiful crafts of Iran. But because of the time
and labour involved, and the low compensation, it is also a dying craft. The Zahedan e-shop
will transfer profits from the sale of these products directly to the producers. Through this
project, women producers will eventually be trained to manage the e-shop and market their
own products. The project will also implement an IT micro-enterprise programme for youth,
which will provide small loans to young entrepreneurs seeking to start IT businesses. Those
interested in competing for loans will also be provided with intensive management training
courses.
In India, the Drishtee (Information Kiosks in Rural India) is a platform for rural
networking and marketing services for enabling e-governance, education and health services.
It runs with software that facilitates communication and information exchange within a local
intranet between villages and a district centre. The information kiosk is supplemented with a
number of services including applications, land records and online grievances. Local villagers
facilitate the services provided through Drishtee and they become kiosk owners, financed by
government schemes. Local rural youth receive training to assist these entrepreneurs without
a stipend or salary. Ninety kiosks are now operating in five Indian states. It is planned that
50,000 villagers will become kiosk owners over the next six years.
36
3.5.4 Environment and community
Historically, employment creation throughout the world has been negligent of its
environmental impacts. This is beginning to change. Certain programmes have evolved in
recent years to promote greater awareness and understanding among youth of how enterprises
affect the local environment and community.
The former attempt to raise awareness of the importance of instruments such as
Agenda 21, the Earth Charter and other environmental goals while, at the same time
generating jobs and livelihoods with an emphasis on environmental protection. The Plan of
Action of the World Summit on Social Development stated:
Promoting patterns of economic growth that maximise employment creation
requires….maximising the job creation potential inherent in Agenda 21 through the
conservation and management of natural resources, the promotion of alternative livelihoods
in fragile ecosystems and the rehabilitation and regeneration of critically affected and
vulnerable land areas and natural resources….
One international initiative is the “Promotion of Youth-Led Enterprises in Off-Grid
Renewable Energy”. This programme is being implemented by the World Bank with the
Education Development Centre, Inc. (USA) as the implementing agency in collaboration with
the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (India) and TakingItGlobal, Canada. The
objective of the initiative is to link the production and promotion of renewable energy with
employment opportunities for youth.
In the United States, “Dream it. Do it” is a joint project of Juniorjobs.com and Youth
Venture to promote social entrepreneurship among young people aged 13 to 20. Together,
these organizations are providing opportunities for job-seeking teenagers to become Youth
Venturers and launch clubs, organizations or businesses that benefit their communities. The
partnership will offer youth the support they need to create, launch and lead their own
enterprise including materials, technical allies, media opportunities, national recognition,
workshops, training, a Venturers-only web site and up to $1,000 in start-up seed money.
The Fund for Social Entrepreneurs in the United States is a nation-wide programme
providing youths with start-up funds, professional management and leadership development,
technical assistance, and mentoring services. The programme was launched by Youth Service
America (YSA). Each year, YSA conducts a national search and chooses five to seven
entrepreneurs from a national applicant pool to join a class of YSA social entrepreneurs for a
three-year period. Social entrepreneurs also receive two-year living and programme seed
grants, computer assistance, and conference attendance reimbursement in the first two years.
The fund took on its first class of social entrepreneurs in April 1995, a second class in May
1996, and a third in June 1997. YSA also has a tradition of assisting up-and-coming
organizations in the national and community service field and leadership training and
programming through the New Generation Training Program, Youth Action Council, and
National Service Seminar.
Other projects serve as a catalyst for permanent social change, economic development
and community empowerment for youth and their families. In the United States, for example,
The Entrepreneurial Development Institute (TEDI) was established in 1991 as a national non-
profit dedicated to enabling disadvantaged youth, aged 7 to 21, to develop small businesses,
avoid drugs and crime, sharpen their academic skills and form positive attitudes about
themselves and their communities.
37
In India, the Barefoot College, created in 1972, is a leader in sustainable community
development. The College has trained barefoot teachers, doctors, solar engineers, hand-pump
mechanics, designers, chemists, communicators and accountants. It has created a non-formal
education process for children and adults, which assists students to develop a sustainable
community.
3.5.5 Women
Women account for nearly two-thirds of the almost one billion illiterate adults around
the world (The World Bank, Annual Report 2002). Of the 100 million children in the world
without access to primary education, 60 per cent are girls.
29
Young women are often unable to
take advantage of education and training opportunities due to barriers to entry and gender
biases in recruitment. They may lack information on health care and services and be unaware
of their legal rights. Gender-based stereotypes continue in many countries and role models
that could lead young women into challenging careers are scarce. In many countries, women
are still not going into the professions traditionally dominated by men. Therefore the type of
education and training is crucial.
The philosophy of many programmes created in recent years in the non-formal sector
is simply to help women help themselves economically. If this can be achieved there is a
measurable, positive impact on children and living standards. The programmes empower
women by increasing their ability to make money, which, in turn, improves their social
standing in the household and community.
In Chile, the Centre for Educational Research and Development (CIDE) has been
providing training to women in urban and rural areas since the 1970s and has so far reached
over 6,000 socially disadvantaged youth and women in the shanty-towns of Chile’s main
cities. The Centre trains artisans and women who CIDE provides with basic pedagogical
skills.
In Sri Lanka, the Small Enterprise Promotion Programme aims to motivate, support
and assist women in selecting appropriate self-employment, impart the basic skills women
need to manage small businesses, provide opportunities for housewives to supplement low
family incomes and improve the living standards of the poorest of the poor. The project is
supported by the Sri Lankan Women’s Bureau which was established in 1978 and now
advises both government and NGOs on all matters relating to women’s development.
At the international level, the objective of Save the Children’s micro finance
programmes is to build sustainable institutions that provide ongoing access to financial
services for poor female micro entrepreneurs. Save the Children works with credible local
partners to build their capacity both technically and institutionally.
3.5.6 Vulnerability due to drug abuse or sexually transmitted diseases
Young people misuse drugs to escape reality, out of boredom or curiosity, to relieve
hunger, to rebel, to get the courage required for begging or commercial sex, to keep awake or
go to sleep, according to a report by the World Health Organization.
In India, the Drug Abuse Prevention Programme in Asia for Marginalized Youth
(DAPPA), is implemented by UNESCO in collaboration with the European Commission. The
programme uses skills-based non-formal education to reach vulnerable young people at risk
29
Source: UNESCO web site, 2002.
38
of drug misuse and HIV/AIDS, particularly in marginalized settings such as slum dwellings
and low income communities.
The Mukti Sadana project in the slums of Mumbai has targeted 22 unemployed young
people and recovering drug users and is helping them to acquire engineering skills, business
know-how and the self-confidence to achieve economic independence. The idea behind the
project, run by the Mukti Sadana (an NGO) in collaboration with UNESCO, is an example of
a package of support that is designed to help young people get back on their feet. It includes
detoxification through counselling, basic education and training. Over an 18-month period,
the trainees learn to operate machinery in a fabrication unit set up by the project to
manufacture simple components needed by local industries. After completion of the first three
months, they are paid a small salary based on their motivation for the next six-month period.
They then progress to running the machine shop, taking orders and creating a profit sharing
scheme, using their newly acquired functional literacy skills. Some trainees are placed in local
businesses; others start their own companies. They receive extra training in basic business
management and participate in micro-credit saving schemes involving local youth and
community groups.
3.5.7 Religious/indigenous/minority groups
In Australia, the Body Shop has worked in partnership with the Commonwealth Youth
Bureau, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and the
Commonwealth Youth Program (CYP) since 1994 to hold a series of workshops that develop
the business skills of young indigenous entrepreneurs from Australia and the South Pacific.
The workshops have provided the incentive necessary for many young people to start a
business, as well as assisting those already in business to reach for further opportunities. The
workshops create an environment where budding entrepreneurs can discuss, debate and reflect
on how to engage in business formation in the company of experts who can advise and assist
with practical ideas and options.
3.5.8 Un- and under-employed diploma holders
Several programmes have evolved that target unemployed diploma holders. For
example, the FATE Foundation in Nigeria is committed to helping university graduates start
and expand their own business. The Foundation has launched a programme for aspiring
entrepreneurs. Enrolled participants benefit from a mentor programme, business library,
computer centre, consulting service, internship programme, business plan competition and
investors’ forum. A number of alumni services are also provided including a loan support
scheme and business incubator.
In South Africa, the Technopreneur Project was launched by the Ntsika Enterprise
Promotion Agency (established by the Department of Trade and Industry). Now implemented
in approximately 20 per cent of township colleges, this project targets graduates and offers
market-needs analysis, technical and entrepreneurial training, credit, work facilities,
mentoring and follow-up services.
3.5.9 Children in post-crisis situations
In many countries, the demand for rurally based and rurally oriented training is made
more acute by the presence of large numbers of displaced peoples and refugees. Here,
children and youth face heightened vulnerability and there are few prospects for waged
employment.
39
In Bosnia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has
launched a series of seminars aimed at teaching students the entrepreneurial skills necessary
to start their own small business. The “Youth and Entrepreneurship in Bosnia and
Herzegovina” project targets unemployed school leavers and at-risk youth and aims to
promote the concept and role of entrepreneurship in society by providing information about
the current economic climate, introducing basic elements of entrepreneurial thinking and
opening a space for discussion about the role of micro-enterprise in a changing economy.
In Croatia, information technology and communications skills for refugees are being
improved with the assistance of Microsoft Croatia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) and other partners. The training programme’s main aim is to provide participants
with the basic IT skills that will enable them to find jobs in the new economy. The top
candidates go on to receive advanced IT training through a Certified Technical Education
Centre (CTEC) partnering the initiative.
In the Sudan, the Refugee and Sudanese Training Programme (RSTP) is a German-
aided (GTZ) project which seeks to address the needs of both local and refugee communities
in Eastern and Southern Sudan and aims at “sponsoring vocational training and women’s
activities for refugees and Sudanese with the objective of providing skills which lead to
employment and income-generation or income saving”.
40
4. Impact and potential for replication
4.1 Impact of enterprise education
It is reasonable to ask whether the increased availability of entrepreneurial education
has made an impact on the entrepreneurial inclinations of the people who take part in these
courses. Measuring the success of entrepreneurship and enterprise education programmes is,
however, a major challenge. Few tracer studies are available for either the formal or the
informal sector, i.e. tracing graduates of enterprise education and self-employment
programmes to see whether they have become business owners or gone into self-employment.
Tracing the effect on business start-up is a long-term goal since opportunities or aspirations
often take many years to come to fruition. Both are time consuming and costly. In fact, one of
the strongest messages to emerge from the study is the time dimension for learning about
enterprise. This is true of early school-leavers as well as for those who continue with
education and even enter wage employment before they turn to their own work.
In terms of quantifiable indicators, for the moment we can only really measure impact
in terms of number of schools, teachers and learners involved over a certain time period, the
number of young people trained or loans disbursed, and the number of new businesses created
within the immediate follow-up period (although, again, there are few tracer studies to see
how many of these businesses survive after the critical 3-year period).
At the forum on “Training for Entrepreneurship” held in Sophia Antipolis in October
2000, the participants stated that in assessing the impact of entrepreneurship education and
training, attention should not only be restricted to the business birth rate, which would be a
long-term result, but also on behavioural attitudes and on the development of a more
entrepreneurial culture. In terms of overall impact on the development of the individual, one
can also consider impact on education of children, health and the environment.
Secondary level
Although there is much anecdotal evidence supporting the positive effects of
entrepreneurship education at the secondary school level, there has been limited empirical
research and few of the programmes described in this report offer information on impact. The
information available was mostly restricted to statistics on the number of learners reached
over a certain time period. Added to this, the effect of interventions would only generally be
felt after a period of 5 to 10 years as most young people who wish to go into business usually
begin with a period of waged employment.
Measuring the impact at secondary level is difficult since most pupils who are
thinking of starting their own business may wait for 5 to 10 years before doing so. Young
people usually go into employment immediately after leaving school/college and only think
about starting their own businesses in their mid-twenties (at the earliest), when they have
acquired some life and business experience. At this level of education, impact assessment is
therefore partly perception based, involving teachers, school principals and students. It is also
useful to talk to employers about whether they believe the attitude of the young people
coming to them for work experience has changed over the project period.
Having said this, the University of Durham Business School suggests that the overall
effectiveness of embedding enterprise education into the educational system can begin to be
measured immediately by asking some or all of the following questions. For example:
41
• How many schools are involved? Over what geographical area?
• How many teachers are involved?
• Has enterprise education been integrated into the curriculum?
• Is there a named contact for enterprise education in each school?
• Do parents and employers understand and support enterprise education?
• Are local partners supporting the process?
• How will the programme be sustained financially?
• To what extent has the Ministry of Education integrated enterprise education into
any educational reform?
Key indicators such as those mentioned below are also used as short-term monitors of
the overall success of the project.
• Long term commitment from local partners who have the power to influence and
make decisions
• Support from the Ministry of Education
• The incorporation of enterprise into the school curriculum
• The participation of teachers who are motivated and possess some key qualities
• Integration with other programmes of development in the region
• Long-term dissemination plans
• The availability of funding for dissemination and support
In terms of the number of schools involved and the socio-economic impact, the
success of a number of interventions at secondary level can be cited. The Youth Tech
Entrepreneurs (YTE), implemented in the Boston region of the United States involves 400+
students at eight high schools. All 18 members of the first YTE ‘graduating class’ are now in
four-year university programmes. This is remarkable in that a number of these participants
had made it clear when they first enrolled in YTE that they could not envision themselves at
university, or pursuing any form of post-secondary education. YTE cites a second, more
anecdotal benefit: positive feedback from participating high schools’ communities (including
a number of positive press articles), for the community service projects themselves, and some
shift in the perceptions of high school students from negative to positive. The programme’s
reputation has been so good that community organizations seek out YTE for assistance with
projects. YTE emphasizes the role of the community organization as the client, with a focus
on the importance of consistency. YTE coordinates a ‘teacher-to-teacher’ hotline so that
current YTE teachers can mentor new or prospective ones. Many of YTE’s corporate
sponsors (such as Raytheon and Hitachi) have high tech connections, and are attracted to the
programme because of their desire for a technologically skilled workforce.
YES (Ireland) has been running for 12 years and has evoked extremely positive
responses from school principals, teachers, parents and students. To date, about 60,000
students have participated in YES. Most participating schools secure external sponsorship,
ranging from €50 (about US$50) to €500 (about US$500), as prizes for their in-school
competitions. Members of the business community, both local and national, have acted as
judges and sponsors. Universally, the feedback on YES has been extremely positive and
supportive.
In Italy, in 1999, the Marco Polo project involved a number of the schools in different
cities, reaching some 2,200 students who were about to enter the labour market. The second
phase of the Marco Polo project targeted 26 secondary schools, around 100 teachers, 2,200
42
students and 478 enterprises. The project has also engaged the active support of many of the
region’s enterprises, making them more aware of the advantages of encouraging effective
training of this sort. It also included the diffusion of enterprise culture amongst schoolteachers
through training and placement in companies.
Vocational level
Measuring qualitative impact is difficult. Though not all entrepreneurship students at
vocational level will eventually move to self-employment, there is still evidence that these
courses are effective in providing a better understanding of enterprise culture and in
improving their knowledge of enterprise and entrepreneurship through practice.
Entrepreneurial training also has an effect in terms of the better integration of students into
the labour market and improving the confidence of target groups with particular difficulties.
Few tracer studies have sought to measure the impact of training for entrepreneurship
and self-employment through technical and vocational education. However, most
programmes have a delayed impact. There is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that
the most successful informal sector actors are often those who have entered the sector after a
combination of training plus a substantial period of employment in the formal sector (e.g.
Grierson; Mead and Kunjeku).
30
University level
In the United States, a survey was carried out on the graduates of a mid-sized
university (Wichita) in order to examine not only the actual entrepreneurial activity associated
with entrepreneurship education, but the effects on intent to open a business for potential
entrepreneurs.
31
The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions was examined
by surveying three groups of graduates: entrepreneurship majors, non-entrepreneurship
business majors, and non-business majors. The research questionnaire was distributed to 84
graduates who had earned undergraduate entrepreneurship degrees within the last 8 years.
Comparison groups were randomly selected from graduates in the same time period. The
hypotheses were that: 1) entrepreneurship graduates will own more businesses than either of
the other two groups; 2) entrepreneurship graduates will express more confidence in their
ability to open and run a new business than either of the other two groups; and 3) more
entrepreneurship graduates will express the intent to open a new business than either of the
other two groups.
Hypothesis 1 was partially supported – entrepreneurship majors have opened more
businesses than other business majors and non-business graduates, though the difference was
statistically significant (marginally) only between entrepreneurship and non-business majors.
Hypothesis 3 was also supported – more entrepreneurship graduates intend to open a business
within two to five years. However, neither personal general efficiency nor entrepreneurial
efficiency was associated with intent to open a business or actual ownership.
A second study, conducted by the Eller College of Business and Public Administration
at the University of Arizona (UA) and the Kaufmann Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership,
30
Education and training for the informal sector – Education research paper No. 11, Department for International
Development, 1994.
31
Contact: Terry W. Noel, Centre for Entrepreneurship, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260-0147; (T)
316-978-5175; (F) 316-978-3687.
43
Kansas City, revealed that entrepreneurship education programme alumni, in comparison to
business school alumni, are three times more likely to start new businesses, three times more
likely to be self-employed, have annual incomes that are 27 per cent higher, own 62 per cent
more assets and are more satisfied with their jobs. The researchers, Charney and Libecap,
surveyed 2,484 Eller College alumni, including 460 who were graduates of the Berger
Entrepreneurship Program. Also surveyed were department heads and other administrators
from the University of Arizona (including the Office of Technology Transfer), the UA
Foundation and the Eller College dean.
The study also found a variance between the growth rates of entrepreneurship
graduates and other alumni’s firms, regardless of whether the graduates were employees or
owners. On average, small firms employing entrepreneurship graduates had greater sales and
employment growth than those that employed non-entrepreneurship graduates. Finally, the
study found that entrepreneurship graduates either founded or worked for high-technology
firms in greater numbers than other business school alumni. Additionally, they are more
involved in new product development and research and development activities, and work with
products having shorter life spans.
Non-formal education level
Many NGO micro-enterprise programmes in the past have experienced high dropout
rates, perhaps because they provided young people with goods and services (food, education,
health support, recreation, etc.) but did not foster independence in the long term. There are
few role models in developing and transition countries and unemployed youth do not realize
the full degree of discipline and tenacity needed to start a business. This leads to high
enrolment rates for youth entrepreneurship schemes but high dropout once the participants
realize what is involved.
Nevertheless, certain programmes have developed successful methodologies that
revolve around an integrated programme of assistance with a proven impact on business start-
ups and self-employment rates.
The Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative Asia project had given over 1,000 loans
by March 2000, with a recovery rate of over 85 per cent. More than 800 enterprises have been
set up and about half the beneficiaries are women. The experience of CYCI has contributed to
greater interest in micro-credit and sustainable livelihoods for young people. The Guyana
CYCI pilot was featured as a model of best practice in a 1999 BBC television programme
called “Hands On”. Agencies such as UNICEF, CIDA/IDRC and others have adopted CYCI’s
approach. CYP is attempting to build on the Youth Credit Initiative with Micro-Credit
Management System, a project to help governments ensure the success of NGO-based
enterprise schemes.
The wider repercussions of entrepreneurship programmes for youth are amply
demonstrated by the BYST programme in India. Every one of the participants in the BYST
programme now have their children educated in the formal manner as compared to 67 per cent
before they started business activity. The total expenditure on education has increased for 70
per cent of the entrepreneurs. Ninety per cent of BYST entrepreneurs have reported an
increase in the average monthly income of the family thus raising their standard of living; 80
per cent have more material possessions such as a vehicle, land, electrical appliances,
furniture and household articles; 60 per cent of entrepreneurs have moved into bigger houses
of their own.
44
Programmes sponsored by the private sector have also achieved a considerable degree
of success. Shell LiveWire in Singapore is an example. In 2001 it is anticipated that 420
young people will benefit from attending “Going 4 Enterprise” workshops, 80 will attend
“Become a Successful Owner Manager” courses and 240 will attend business skill-specific
sessions. The programme aims to have three viable and sustainable businesses started by the
end of year 1. Shell Foundation funding is used to develop programmes and provide training.
The total financial support for the programme is £660,000; Shell Singapore and ITE have a
5-year commitment to the programme.
Nearly 60 per cent of Youth Business International enterprises (United Kingdom) are
still trading into their third year, a rate that compares very favourably with conventional
lending sources, despite the ‘high risk’ nature of the businesses. Each business helps to
rejuvenate its local economy and some of the largest have had a major impact. Business
survival rates have also been impressive. A significant proportion of those businesses that
ceased trading did so because the young entrepreneurs had been offered a job. The ‘top 50’
Prince’s Trust businesses have a combined turnover of £148 million and employ around 1,700
staff. The Prince’s Trust has helped 50,000 young people into self-employment since its
business start-up programme was launched in 1983. On an international level, the results of
the Prince’s Trust Youth Business Initiatives has been tremendous. By the end of 1999, over
45,000 young people had been set up in business by 12 Youth Business Initiatives. Business
survival rates have also been impressive.
In India, over the last 10 years BYST has directed over 550 job seekers into Job
Creators, providing employment to 3,500 young people. Businesses have generated an annual
turnover of Rs.110 million. Ten per cent of the entrepreneurs have become millionaires, and
15 per cent have provided employment to over 20 people. The loan recovery rate is 95 per
cent. Businesses range from traditional industry (garments, food products, handicrafts, etc.) to
hi-tech businesses (plastic moulding, computer education centres, software programming,
automotive components manufacturers, etc.).
In Trinidad, each year more than 5,000 young people participate in the SERVOL
scheme; 85 per cent complete the programme and enter the workforce. Since 1981, SERVOL
has trained more than 450 early childhood educators, 33 field officers, and 125 adolescent
instructors throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
Since 1982, Shell LiveWire programme has helped over 200,000 young people start
up in business. In the last five years it has attracted over 500 new businesses with a combined
turnover of almost £50 million. The long-term success of LiveWire and the support it has
received from businesses, communities and government has encouraged the development of a
programme framework for use in countries around the world.
Over 150 young people from nine states of India have been trained as barefoot solar
engineers through the Barefoot College. They have equipped over 2000 houses in the
Himalayas with solar electricity. Economic sustainability is achieved as people depend on and
compensate each other for their skills and services. Other types of sustainability are achieved
by using traditional media, such as puppet and street theatre, to convey messages on social
issues (minimum wage, gender equality, etc.).
45
Impact on poverty reduction
Research has shown that programmes have an impact in many different ways, not just
in terms of the number of youths reached or businesses created. There is also a more general
impact on the overall well-being of the young people taking part, their families and
communities.
The wider repercussions of entrepreneurship programmes for youth are amply
demonstrated by the BYST programme in India.
? Health
Seventy per cent of entrepreneurs and their family members in the BYST programme
now utilize private health services (which are expensive) as compared to 50 per cent earlier.
Inversely, 30 per cent of entrepreneurs and their family use government facilities as compared
to 50 per cent earlier. This shows that 20 per cent have shifted to more expensive health
services.
? Education
AIMS project research (USAID’s impact assessment project for micro finance) has
demonstrated a positive correlation between micro finance and education: Barnes, Morris and
Gaile (Uganda Study, 1998)
32
found that earnings from micro enterprises tend to be the main
source of funds for children’s education expenses. Dunn (Peru Study, 1999)
33
showed that
households of micro enterprise clients spent 20 per cent more on children’s education than
non-client households. Chen and Snodgrass (India Study, 1999)
34
confirmed that the children
of borrowers had a higher enrolment in primary and secondary schools than those of non-
borrowers.
All of the entrepreneurs in the BYST programme sent their children to private schools
as compared to 50 per cent earlier. Total expenditure on education has increased for 70 per
cent of the entrepreneurs.
? Influence on national policy
In India, the BYST programme has influenced the readiness of commercial banks to
lend money to entrepreneurs supported by programmes without security or collateral. For
example, for the year 2000-2001 budget, the Indian Finance Minister permitted all banks to
give loans worth half a million to start-up businesses without collateral and security.
4.2 Potential for replication
Programmes linked to secondary level
A number of subjects already on the secondary school curriculum appear fertile
ground for the dissemination of enterprise education concepts. Additional options towards
self-employment could include practical pre-vocational subjects such as agriculture, as well as
business studies, commerce and related courses. In all subjects there should be little difficulty
in devising modules that introduce entrepreneurial concepts to students. However, significant
changes in pupil attitudes are likely to require more than the addition of such modules.
32
An Assessment of the Impact of Microfinance Services in Uganda, AIMS, Brief No. 18, September 1998.
33
Micro Finance Clients in Lima, Peru, AIMS, Brief No. 24, June 1999.
34
Assessment of the Impact of SEWA Bank in India, AIMS, Brief No. 26, August 1999.
46
In the United States, the Youth Tech Entrepreneurs curriculum, which was developed
in conjunction with the State Department of Education, is available at no cost (as stipulated by
the Department) to all teachers who register online.
As suggested by the University of Durham Business School, introducing entrepreneurship
and enterprise education requires a close attention to fundamental elements, including the
following:
a) school administration’s support
b) government support
c) faculty/teachers’ commitment and skills
d) availability, sequencing and content of courses, curricula, and syllabi
e) availability of teaching materials including teachers’ manuals and students’
workbooks
f) students’ attitude and readiness
g) community involvement, and
h) general socio-cultural, economic, political and technological environment.
Programmes linked to TVET
Research suggests that there is no single model of the most suitable TVET response to
the pressures to reorient towards self-entrepreneurship and self-employment. Different TVET
institutions reflect different socio-economic and institutional realities and intended policy
imperatives. It will be necessary for planners at both institutional and national level to
determine the appropriate degree of self-employment focus in each situation.
In developing countries, certain methodologies such as KAB, SYB, CEFE and
EMPRETEC hold possibilities for the replication of successful practices within TVET
institutions.
In these developing countries, vocational training systems are beginning to reorient
themselves through partnerships and collaborative arrangements with overseas universities
and UN agencies which facilitate knowledge transfer and provide financial assistance. For
example, in Kenya, the Entrepreneurship Education Programme (EEP) was launched in
technical training colleges throughout the country in 1990 with the support of the
International Labour Office and the University of Illinois. The Ministry of Research,
Technical Training and Technology is responsible for implementation.
Research by DFID in the early 1990s on TVET systems in African countries
demonstrates that planning for the replication of pilot schemes of rural training is in itself
insufficient. Such a process can only succeed if the programme reflects the perceived needs of
the local institutions involved and if attention is paid to the questions of cost recovery and
sustainability. Programmes such as KYTEC, which reflect national policy objectives, are
more likely to succeed than those which seek to impose an external set of priorities on the
host country. Too often, however, a top-down strategy for national replication of pilot
schemes has been the pattern in many African countries, and this pays scant attention to the
local dimension and perspective before declaring the pilot to be nationally adopted.
The cost of reforming technical and vocational education and training can be
prohibitive, especially in developing and transition countries and in times when governments
are cutting back their financial support for education systems. Therefore, it is necessary to
look at alternative funding sources and strategic partnerships with the private sector. In
47
Africa, an illustrative case is that of Harare Polytechnic in Zimbabwe. Whilst state regulations
mean that the official courses of the Polytechnic are free, it has been able to offer evening
classes which have attracted huge numbers of working and self-employed students whilst
covering costs and partly subsidizing the day-time programme. The Engineering Department,
for instance, has had up to 700 external students enrolled on particular courses. This example
indicates that even where the state is reluctant to abandon subsidized tertiary level technical
education, there is scope for innovative methods of cost-recovery, as well as a significant
market for training. Examples of private sector sponsorship arrangements can also be found,
such as with Shell LiveWire in Singapore, launched in July 2000 in collaboration with the
Institute of Technical Education (ITE), the ITE Alumni Association and the
Technopreneurship Incubation Centre. Shell has provided a grant of £120,000 over 3 years
from 2000–2002.
Finally, in any country where the informal sector represents a large part of the
economy, TVET institutions cover only a small part of the training needs. It may be more
realistic to set up a limited number of Small Enterprise Development Institutions to prepare
entrepreneurs for the informal sector in cooperation with TVET institutions.
Such centres could act as resources for other agencies interested in entrepreneurship
development. Indeed, it is possible to envisage replication of the model of the
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI-I), which exists primarily as a
facilitator, rather than a provider of entrepreneurial development courses.
Know about Business (KAB)
Entrepreneurship Education in Vocational and Technical Training
The specific objectives of the KAB package are to:
• create awareness of enterprise and self-employment as a career option for
beneficiaries in vocational and technical training institutions;
• develop positive attitudes towards enterprise and self-employment;
• provide knowledge and practice of the required attributes and challenges
for starting and operating a successful enterprise, particularly a small
business;
• prepare beneficiaries to work productively in small and medium-sized
enterprises and more generally for an environment in which formal, full-
time wage employment may be scarce or unavailable.
The Know About Business (KAB) package comprises a set of training
materials for entrepreneurship education. The package seeks to develop
entrepreneurial skills and in the process prepare participants not only to establish their
own businesses at some point in the future but also to work productively in SMEs. In
so doing, at a broader level, the overall objective of KAB is to contribute towards the
creation of an enterprise culture.
KAB aims to enable young people to choose entrepreneurship or self-
employment as a career option. It is not intended necessarily to have young people
begin their careers as entrepreneurs or self-employed people. Rather, it is meant to
give them an awareness and some practice of the opportunities, challenges,
procedures, characteristics, attitudes and skills needed for successful entrepreneurship.
48
The KAB package was designed for use in vocational education and training
institutions. It has been put together in such a way as to allow its introduction into a
variety of classroom settings. To be effective, the entrepreneurship concepts presented
must eventually be integrated into vocational and technical programmes at all levels.
If specific characteristics are essential to success in business, then the training of
potential entrepreneurs must not wait until the latter are adults, by which time they
may have acquired many non-entrepreneurial habits.
The KAB package is addressed to trainers/teachers in vocational and technical
training institutions. The materials can be adapted for use in both industrialized and
developing countries as well as in further and higher education institutions other than
vocational and technical. It is assumed that the trainers/teachers using the materials
would typically possess a diploma or higher level education, have some technical
skills but little or no previous business/enterprise experience.
Programmes linked to universities
There are examples of cases where the introduction of entrepreneurship courses at
university level in developing and transition countries has been made possible through a
transfer of knowledge and know-how with reference to teaching and learning methodologies.
For example, the CEFE methodology conceived by GTZ has been successfully
adapted by the Philippines Institute for Small-Scale Industries at the University of the
Philippines (UP ISSI) and by Changmai University in Thailand. CEFE has also been used to
train lecturers. Other entrepreneurship and small business management models could include
those of McClelland, Management Systems International (famous for its PECs) and the SIYB
of ILO among others.
Adaptation has also been made possible through knowledge transfer between
universities. For example, the University of Maribor in Slovenia adapted one of the most
successful study programmes for managers of small and medium-sized companies in Europe,
practised at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Boras in Sweden, through a
European project (Tempus). Realization of the project is based on cooperation between the
following institutions of higher education: University College of Boras (Sweden), School of
Economics and Commercial Law, University of Gothenburg (Sweden), De Vlerick School of
Management, University of Ghent (Belgium), Faculty of Economics and Banking, University
of Udine (Italy), and Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Maribor (Slovenia).
The case of Slovenia shows that university courses can be replicated but require broad- based
partnerships between universities for transfer of know-how and teacher training.
Within universities, there are possibilities for developing entrepreneurship courses for
graduate and postgraduate students in the science, engineering and medical faculties.
However, moving towards a more entrepreneurial focus within conventional business school
structures can encounter some obstacles. Some of these problems are:
a) motivating mainstream business school staff who conventionally rely upon
functional expertise and who are oriented towards large companies, to shift their
teaching style and attitudes to research on more entrepreneurial “holistic
management” approaches;
49
b) persuading staff to study the individual entrepreneur or the micro/small enterprise,
as opposed to the managers of large firms;
c) avoiding the trap of perceiving the teaching of management in small organizations
as merely a simplistic version of teaching management of large organizations.
Experience from the Philippines on introducing entrepreneurship education at
university level revealed the following difficulties:
a) motivating students to enrol in the course
The students perceived that faculty members do not themselves have the
entrepreneurial spirit, and that they are talking only from the books. Also, students had a
negative attitude towards entrepreneurship education. They stated that entrepreneurship is not
a profession, therefore, it should not be taken as a course in college/university.
b) lack of entrepreneurship faculty
Faculty members know the subject matter of entrepreneurship and some of the
techniques, but their techniques are also limited because they have repeatedly used the same
techniques over the years. There is a lack of creativity and innovation on the part of the
faculty.
c) lack of support from the faculty
Entrepreneurship faculty members were full-time faculty members and were handling
other subjects. They had no time to devote to the practical aspect of the entrepreneurship
courses such as developing materials. There was very strong dependence on textbooks which
were patterned after the American style of teaching.
d) lack of commitment of faculty
Few faculty members volunteer to undergo training-of-trainers courses.
e) sequencing of entrepreneurship curriculum
There was a need to look at the totality of subjects in order to determine the required
prior skills and knowledge. For example, it was found that natural science subjects were
offered when students were already in their third or fourth years. Students should have
already followed their natural science courses before business planning and environmental
scanning sessions which consider environmental factors.
f) contents of the subjects were not clearly designed
Model syllabi were copied from textbooks and reference books
g) lack of teaching materials
h) lack of capital to assist the students in starting a small business
Non-formal education programmes
In the non-formal economy, it has to be recognized that youth are a heterogeneous
group in terms of economic circumstances, attitudes and behaviours. This has implications for
50
programme replication. The youngest group are more economically disadvantaged than the
others. Girls are usually more economically disadvantaged than boys, but boys are often more
subject to peer and societal pressure to engage in different types of behaviour. Programmatic
and policy responses should take this diversity into account and try to identify appropriate
opportunities for a diverse workforce, instead of trying to fit all unemployed young people
into one-size training programmes. A variety of models are needed to deal with different
students: a) skilled people needing capital b) those who are between jobs, c) survivalists.
Labour market measures should be linked to local community development and the provision
of social, health and welfare services. The individual may participate in a number of activities,
including advice, vocational education and training, as well as work experience facilitated by
different providers, but these need to be planned in an integrated and coordinated way.
Many projects have developed and evolved their own teaching and learning
methodologies, which have then been replicated within the same project framework nationally
and internationally or by other development partners elsewhere. For example, the
Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative has developed a Toolkit to assist governments,
development agencies and NGOs in the implementation of micro-credit programmes. The
heterogeneity of the needs of youth means that what works for some people will not work for
others. However, the CYCI is sufficiently flexible to meet the differing needs of a range of
users, presenting a menu of options that users can adapt to specific national and local
circumstances. The modules focus on an overview of the initiative, guidelines for
implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation, and training resources. The
estimated success rate of businesses in the scheme is 80 per cent, compared with a 10 per cent
for other businesses in the poorer Commonwealth countries.
Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB)
The programme
The Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme is a management-
training programme with a focus on starting and improving small businesses as a
strategy for creating more and better employment in developing economies and
economies in transition.
The goals
The long-term development goals of SIYB are to contribute to economic
growth in general and the creation of more and better jobs in micro and small
enterprises (MSEs) in particular.
The short-term development goals are to strengthen local business
development service (BDS) providers to deliver business management training that
will make it possible for micro and small-scale entrepreneurs to start and improve
their businesses, thereby creating sustainable jobs for themselves and others.
The history
Improve Your Business (IYB) started as a training programme – “Look After
Your Firm” – developed by the Swedish Employers’ Federation in the early 1970’s. In
1977 the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) funded a project
within the ILO that adapted the original Swedish initiative to the needs of small-scale
entrepreneurs in developing economies.
Start Your Business (SYB) was developed in 1991. Since IYB focused on
existing businesses, SYB was developed to address the needs of potential micro and
small-scale entrepreneurs who wanted to start a business, but did not know how.
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Start and Improve Your Business is today a globally recognized ILO
trademark and the programme has been introduced in more than 80 countries. SIDA
continues to be the main donor.
Implementation strategy
The programme follows an institution-building strategy by working with
existing local and national organizations. SIYB project staff train trainers from Partner
Organizations (POs) who in turn train the micro and small-scale entrepreneurs.
The cost of training trainers is covered by the SIYB project, but cost recovery
of training entrepreneurs is the responsibility of the PO. Often this is a mix between
participants’ fee and a small subsidy provided by the organization.
To ensure sustainability SIYB projects are seeking to create a market culture in
which POs charge the full cost for providing the service (i.e. training) and a culture in
which entrepreneurs are willing to make the initial investment and pay for the service
provided.
This strategy makes it possible for SIYB to reach large numbers of
entrepreneurs. When donor funding stops and pilot projects are phased out, local and
national institutions continue delivering training to entrepreneurs. National master
trainers who have been educated during the course of the project assist the POs.
The long-term success of LiveWire and the support it has received from businesses,
communities and government encouraged the development of a programme framework for
use in countries around the world. In 2001 LiveWire advised over 30,000 young
entrepreneurs and it is now operating in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Brunei, Chile, Hungary, Ireland, Mauritius, Netherlands, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sri
Lanka, United Kingdom.
Prince’s Youth Business Trust (United Kingdom) provides training and finance for
disadvantaged young people with a viable business idea in 14 countries (Argentina, Belize,
Barbados, Canada, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Mauritius, Oman, South Africa, Sri
Lanka, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago) in addition to the United Kingdom.
In the United States, The Entrepreneurial Development Institute (TEDI) has
established a consortium of youth-serving agencies for replication of its model in 18 other US
cities. It has also launched four additional direct-service branch offices in Atlanta, New
Jersey, Los Angeles and Cleveland. Founded in Washington, DC, it has recently moved its
headquarters to New York City.
Youth Business International (YBI)
YBI is a unit of The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum
that helps disadvantaged young people realize their ambitions to become
entrepreneurs.
YBI brings together people in the corporate sector, civil society and
government, who make their skills, expertise and facilities available on young people's
behalf to provide access to finance, business mentoring and support to young
entrepreneurs during the start-up and early development of their businesses.
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YBI is the coordinating body of a global network of organizations that deliver
its programme of support to young people and who share common principles and
working practices.
The YBI programme delivers a huge range of benefits, from building the
employability of young people to generating a culture of entrepreneurship and
dynamism in the local economy.
• More than 50,000 young people have been set up in business by 20 YBI
programmes around the world.
• Over 60 per cent of these young people are still successfully in business in
their third year.
Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST)
BYST is a non-profit, non-government organization launched in April 1992 by
YBI to nurture the entrepreneurial dreams of the underprivileged youth of India. It is
the only youth business initiative in the country. Its aim is to fight the two major
problems that plague Indian society: poverty and unemployment.
BYST provides financial assistance to disadvantaged youth, to start a new
business or expand an existing one. The loans are given without collateral. Mentoring
support is provided through volunteer businesspeople and professionals. It is the
pioneer of small business mentoring in the country. BYST also provides other support
services to its entrepreneurs in the form of regular training programmes, workshops
get-togethers and opportunities to display their products and services at national and
international trade fairs and exhibitions.
BYST has supported nearly 900 entrepreneurs, of whom 137 are women. The
businesses range from handicrafts to high-tech electronics. Most of them are
successful businesspeople today.
BYST has found ample support from the Indian business community. Many
industrial houses and multinational corporations are BYST partners. The
Confederation of Indian Industry (an apex national industry organization) provides
administrative support. Donations are also received from the corporate sector.
BYST has been involved in created forums to exchange best practice with
other developing countries.
The Joint Enrichment Project in South Africa has undertaken national research and
consultations on youth policy and the development of key principles for youth development.
The JEP has piloted and evolved a strategic developmental approach for youth work that takes
into account all aspects of the young person’s life. Known as the “Integrated Approach to
Youth Development” (IAYD), the approach has two components: (1) Ensuring that youth
programmes and policies address the economic, educational, social and psychological needs
of young people, and (2) Ensuring that youth development initiatives are fundamentally and
firmly linked to the broader community and societal developmental issues. The JEP has also
developed a range of training programmes directed at other service providers, change agents
and youth workers. These programmes are designed to reach more young people than the
pilot projects, through strategic partnerships with a range of institutions.
53
The Skills Development for Self-Reliance (SDSR) methodology used as part of the
KYTEC project in Kenya is also sufficiently flexible to be successfully adapted to the
particular circumstances of the project country. Whilst this is a donor-instigated project, it
explicitly aims at becoming institutionalized within local structures. It is carried out by local
staff and is located within the relevant ministry. The project is consistent with the stated
policy of the government regarding rural development and makes use of existing structures
and staff in carrying out needs surveys, training, etc. It works through existing organizations
and staff wherever possible. This has the effect of minimizing fixed costs, whilst at the same
time making the project familiar to key agents and institutions at local and national level.
In Nepal, a package was developed as part of the Small Business Promotion Project
(SBPP) – launched in October 1983 as a joint project of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal
(HMG/N) and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Due to the
success of the training, this package is now used by GTZ in over 70 countries of the
developing world and is marketed as CEFE.
The SERVOL approach used in Trinidad and Tobago has been replicated in a number
of countries throughout the region and internationally in Ireland and South Africa. In
partnership with the national government, SERVOL, a national NGO, has assisted in building
more than 40 “Adolescent Life Centres” which train young people in areas such as welding,
plumbing, woodwork, catering, geriatric nursing, and child care. Servol was responsible for
equipping the centres, which were community built.
The Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings (GGLS) is Save the Children’s principal
economic opportunities strategy. The strategy is currently being replicated in 15 countries and
territories: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon,
Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Viet Nam and West Bank/Gaza. GGLS has
particular expertise in implementing micro finance programmes in the Middle East and in
transition countries such as Afghanistan, Georgia and Tajikistan. The United Nations
Development Programme MicroStart recently selected Save the Children as its first technical
service provider for Morocco.
The Barefoot College approach has been replicated in 13 states of India, and in
Morocco. The organizers of the Barefoot College are prepared to help replicate the approach
in any country which has problems of unemployed rural youth and where there is a high rate
of illiteracy. The positive side of the coin is that there is a rich and vibrant oral tradition and
that indigenous knowledge remains to be identified and utilized. A number of lessons can be
learned from the Barefoot College experience in India. Certain conditions have to be met: 1)
The organization or institution must believe in the value of traditional knowledge and skills
and have faith in its own capacity to make use of them. If not, there is absolutely no point in
trying to replicate the practice. 2) If the organization or institution has been totally spoilt by
the presence of and dependency on urban-based, ‘paper-qualified experts’, then the Barefoot
College approach will not work. 3) The organization must be flexible, transparent and non-
hierarchical.
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5. Recommendations
5.1 Wider policy environment for youth entrepreneurship and enterprise creation
Creating favourable conditions for small enterprise development among young people
begins with assessing the incentives and disincentives that economic policies may create,
perhaps unintentionally, for smaller businesses. Small enterprises must be able to make a
profit and be competitive. The first step, then, is to examine policies that do not specifically
target youth entrepreneurship but may affect it, such as the administrative and legal
procedures for business start-up, availability of finance from commercial banks, education
and skills training, social protection, gender equality and business expansion support.
National policies, particularly in developing and transition countries, need to do more
to empower and encourage public and private institutions to rethink their approach to self-
employment preparation. Governments, in consultation with employers’ associations and
workers’ organizations, are identifying skill needs. At vocational level, it is clear that a
serious national commitment to new enterprise development means far-reaching changes and
a fundamentally different kind of institution, involved not just with training but offering many
of the other services, such as credit and extension associated with SME growth.
The ILO World Employment Report 1998-99 points out that both labour market
information (LMI) and vocational guidance play influential roles, regardless of a country’s
stage of development. Improved knowledge about labour market opportunities – the nature
and location of employment, wages and working conditions and opportunities, and assistance
in using the information – are vital to improved labour market operations. LMI and vocational
guidance are especially critical for youth whose knowledge of, and exposure to the world of
work is limited.
Education and training programmes should also be reformed in a way that creates a
system of incentives to encourage the private sector to provide mentoring for young
entrepreneurs, as well as training and skills acquisition opportunities for young people.
Incentives might include: tax breaks or tax holidays, wage subsidies, preferential purchase
agreements, etc. Entrepreneurs and others from the business community (including university
alumni) should be encouraged to have a broad involvement in teaching, as guest lecturers,
subjects for case studies, mentors and even entrepreneurs-in-residence.
In line with the above, policy guidelines have been developed for entrepreneurship
promotion in different contexts. For example, youth-targeted interventions in transition
countries should draw on the lessons of the Entrepreneurship and enterprise development in
transition economies: Policy guidelines and recommendations.
35
These were developed as a
collaborative effort between UNIDO and the OECD, which organized the Forum on
Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (FEED) in 1999. The guidelines and
recommendations are intended as a general framework within which private sector
development and the promotion of SMEs can be undertaken in transition countries while, at
the same time, they recognize that different objectives, conditions, and resources in each
country require a customized approach.
Finally, in some countries, an area-based approach to youth entrepreneurship has been
receiving particular attention from policy makers. In this context, entrepreneurship
35
Available in English and Russian from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD).
55
programmes at different levels of education could be more closely integrated into broader
development frameworks and training strategies. For example, in transition countries, links
can be established between vocational education reforms and the PHARE and TACIS
Programmes.
36
The European Training Foundation, which is facilitating the reform of
vocational education in European Union member States, could be a partner organization, as
could the Business Educators Network for Entrepreneurship (BENE).
5.2 Integrating entrepreneurship education into the classroom
How can traditional secondary, vocational and university courses be modified so as to
stimulate students and trainees to think in a more entrepreneurial way? Cost is an important
element in deciding whether entrepreneurial programmes can be replicated within formal
national education systems. The cost of planning and introducing curriculum reforms,
producing materials and organizing teacher training can be prohibitive in developing and
transition countries where Ministries of Education are already overwhelmed by efforts to
achieve education for all.
Research has shown that it is possible to use different training methodologies in both
formal and non-formal sectors as a template for replication in other contexts. Funding is still a
major issue, however. Within national education systems at secondary level, governments
throughout the world are slowly making funds available for training and materials. At
vocational and university level, as well as within the non-formal sector, the challenge is to
develop self-supporting systems of operation with funds generated from fees, consultancy,
training, evaluation and research activities.
At the same time, effective programmes suggest that the key to success is creating a
classroom culture that encourages teamwork, lateral thinking, and reflective learning. Existing
enterprising practices within the learning environment should be identified and built upon.
The method used should be process based and appropriate to the backgrounds of the trainees.
Learning should be based on “appropriate technologies” that are easily available within the
locality. This covers a whole range of both traditional techniques that have been around for
centuries (such as the use of mud and clay in building, vaulted roofs and terracotta tiles) and
modern technologies (such as solar energy or wind-power). In all cases, the focus is on
ownership, which should rest with the students not the teacher; the learners must be
empowered to understand and gain confidence in their abilities, recognize how ideas might be
generated, understand how to solve problems creatively and learn how to plan and organize a
project.
The issues of replication and sustainability are therefore linked and the immediate
impact of entrepreneurship education programmes will depend not just on the ability to
finance interventions, but also on the quality of the training provision, its relevance to local
needs and its impact on the local community in terms of generating sustainable livelihoods
and self-employment opportunities, as well as overall poverty reduction.
36
The main aim of PHARE is to support these countries in the process of economic transformation and the
strengthening of democracy. For those countries which have applied to join the European Union, special efforts
are being made to assist them to reach the stage where they are ready to assume the obligations of membership.
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Secondary level: Although not everybody can be an entrepreneur,
37
certainly
teachers, school administrators, staff and students can be trained to display the characteristics
of successful entrepreneurs, so that the ultimate result is an enterprising school environment.
Subjects already on the curriculum which are relevant to enterprise education include
social studies, geography, and history. Newer subjects such as life skills or citizenship
education are even more relevant in terms of subject matter. Additional options towards self-
employment could include practical pre-vocational subjects such as agriculture, as well as
business studies, commerce and related courses. In all subjects there should be little difficulty
in devising modules that introduce entrepreneurial concepts to students.
Pupil-centred training methodologies often involve a change in approach which meets
with initial resistance. Overcoming this may depend more on personal qualities than on
subject knowledge. If school directors are not teachers, special arrangements may be
necessary to enable them to appreciate the practical implications of curriculum reform. Where
market economics are not well understood, trainers may themselves need training in how
enterprises interact in a market economy.
Vocational level: The ILO World Employment Report 1998-99, noted that training
programmes in developing countries have often failed “because of the unfamiliar terminology
used and bureaucratic attitudes adopted – treating participants as inferior – and, most
importantly, because training is considered as a single-intervention approach”, requiring no
complementary inputs. “Lack of institutional support and credit often render the new skills
acquired through training unexploitable”. It is therefore “crucial that training not be designed
in isolation from the other necessary inputs”. “If training is complemented with credit at low
rates of interest through a decentralized system of loan delivery and collection”, the report
concludes, “it is possible to make a real difference to incomes in the informal sector”.
“[Apprenticeship] …training is important in the transfer and development of skills and
has a direct impact on productivity and therefore on income”, says the report. Entrepreneurs
in the informal sector place a high value on apprenticeship training as, apprentices often stay
on as skilled labour in their workshops. Others start small businesses of their own. “In Kenya,
with its relatively well developed formal training system, there are more apprentices enrolled
in the informal sector than trainees in the formal sector”, while “in Egypt, over 80 per cent of
crafters in the construction sector acquire their skills through traditional apprenticeship”.
Besides informal apprenticeship, government and NGO-based training programmes
also exist. Usually directed at owners or future owners of micro enterprises, these take the
form of extension services, vocational training or business management programmes. “NGOs
in particular have been in the forefront of training initiatives in the informal sector”.
“Training policy”, argues the report, “would do better to address the needs of those
already established in informal production and who require upgrading of specific skills”
through an introduction, for example, to new technologies and new products.
37
A common view is that entrepreneurs possess distinguishing personal entrepreneurial competencies (PECs)
which contribute to their success. Personal qualities and abilities such as initiative, creativity, risk taking, self-
confidence, team spirit and leadership enable the individual to be better at thinking, analysing, solving problems,
taking action and corrective measures. It is now commonly believed that these traits can be captured and
promoted through the learning process.
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In addition, “existing apprenticeship systems in the micro enterprise sector need to be
upgraded”. Successful as informal apprenticeship may have proved to be in transferring skills
from one generation to the next, “it suffers from serious problems and there is ample scope
for improvement”, says the ILO report, which goes on to identify strategies to improve the
quality of the training provided.
Certain methodologies such as CEFE (GTZ), Know Your Business (ILO) and
EMPRETEC (UNCTAD) have potential for replicating successful practices within TVET
institutions because they represent integrated packages of support. Research by the
Department for International Development (United Kingdom) on training for the informal
sector in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1990s also suggests that in order to improve the
responsiveness of vocational education and training to new labour market requirements,
reforms have to be sustained and extended with a particular view to:
- adjusting existing school infrastructures and programmes to the new economic
priorities;
- further reforming qualifications so that they correspond more closely to the needs of
the labour market;
- increasing investment in vocational education and training to promote innovation and
to ensure higher levels of participation and attainment;
- re-establishing links between education and training institutions, the world of work
and enterprises; and
- placing greater emphasis on the acquisition of transversal competencies (“core
competencies”), including technological, social, organizational, linguistic, cultural and
entrepreneurial skills, through active types of learning.
University level: Within universities, there are possibilities for developing
entrepreneurship courses for graduate and postgraduate students in the science, engineering
and medical faculties. However, moving towards a more entrepreneurial focus within
conventional business school structures can encounter some obstacles, particularly the lack of
lecturers with real experience of working as businesspeople in the commercial sector.
Non-formal level: The ILO World Employment Report 1998-99, points out that the
major challenge facing skills development training for workers in the informal economy is to
mainstream their concerns into formal training policies and systems, to upgrade the practices
of non-formal training providers, to document and develop training strategies for particular
categories of workers outside the formal labour market (e.g. those who are difficult to reach
such as home-based workers, those in micro- and family-based enterprises, seasonal workers
in the construction industry), and to establish sustainable financing mechanisms for training
the poor.
Several programmes supported by NGOs, the private sector and inter-governmental
organizations have achieved good results because they applied traditional, indigenous
knowledge and skills to solving basic problems and thus to reducing communities’
dependency on expertise from outside, which is often inappropriate and irrelevant. The low
cost of local technologies makes them easily replicable wherever similar problems exist. The
Barefoot College in India is one example of an intervention that has applied this way of
thinking. Programme success has also been based on organizing the participants into self-help
groups and peer networking.
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Programmes such as SIYB have been successful because they have adopted a low
literacy approach with class times based around the rhythms and habits of the community.
The proximity of the training centres to the target groups or the neighbourhoods to be served
is also a key element. In remote or difficult-to-reach areas, this takes the form of mobile units
or utilization of local buildings, e.g. schools or churches. All of these aspects highlight the
need to design programmes that are “youth-friendly”. It is not sufficient merely to identify
providers willing to serve youth. Rather, providers must be trained to respect young people
and their communities.
5.3 Teacher training
Secondary level
Durham University Business School (DUBS) suggests that in order to successfully
implement enterprising activities in a school, teachers must be open-minded and enthusiastic,
coming from a wide variety of teaching areas. They must be given time for discussion,
exchange of ideas and planning, as well as support and encouragement from school
management. Consequently teachers and also administrative authorities within schools should
be made aware of entrepreneurship. DUBS has identified four major areas where specific
teaching skills are required. They are: a) the classroom environment, b) managing projects, c)
understanding the learning process, and d) negotiating and involving colleagues.
Vocational level
Evidence from the KAB and SIYB programme in Central Asia also points to the
careful selection of trainers and business consultants, all of whom should be experts in their
field. The choice of trainers and agencies will vary according to the specific situation within
each country or locality.
University level
The University of Southampton (United Kingdom) carried out an evaluation of its
entrepreneurship programme in 2001. This suggested that the professional development of
lecturers is an essential part of the development of enterprising activities in schools. The
difficulty in finding appropriate trainers with first-hand experience of managing a business is
being resolved by the Centre for Enterprise at Leicester University through an exchange
programme. The programme recognizes that entrepreneurship might best be learned from
other entrepreneurs and that these rarely find the time to give seminars. The scheme therefore
offers academics the chance to change places with business people for part of the week. This
gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to work within an academic institution and to share their
experience of managing an SME with students.
5.4 Follow-up activities
The main objective of most programmes is to improve students’ skills in problem
solving, teambuilding, and communications. However the simple vision of schools forming
their pupils into young entrepreneurs through mere curricular changes is false. Graduates of
entrepreneurship, enterprise or income-generation courses need follow-up services so that
they can make the shift into the real economy.
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Secondary level
It has been argued that much could be done to promote self-employment at secondary
level through positive images of enterprise activities. Many successful programmes have
connected the school with local micro (small) businesses to inspire students to consider small
business as a genuine post-school option. Bringing self-employed people into the school as
role models and sources of information could have great benefits for student morale,
especially for girls and minority groups. Ongoing contact with an adult over an extended
period of time, including career guidance or elements of monitoring and support, is also
important.
Career guidance is already established in developed and some developing countries,
such as Botswana or Malawi. However in some of the poorer developing countries,
institutionalized career guidance is still almost non-existent. In most of the planned
economies of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and also in China, it was not a
priority until very recently, when schools had to begin to orient their leavers to a dramatically
less certain, and more diverse, work environment.
Equally problematic is relying on teachers to organize career guidance. The basic
problem is that career education has traditionally been waged employment in the modern
sector of the economy. In the poorer countries of the world there have never been enough
formal-sector jobs to justify having a career programme to discuss choice amongst them. And
as for the huge number of positions in the informal sector, these have not until recently been
considered careers worth discussion. One of the consequences of taking self-employment
seriously, however, might be much more information about informal sector ‘careers’
opportunities.
Enterprise education projects require systematic data collection and coordination to
keep track of numbers trained and of what happens to students after training. A note of
warning, however, is that the majority of existing successful entrepreneurs were not created
through such courses. Indeed, it is possible that the very cultural contexts in which such
programmes have been judged to be successful might be those which foster entrepreneurship
regardless of any such external intervention. It may be, therefore, that such programmes are
largely not replicable. However, there is a more problematic interpretation. It is possible that
there is a limit on the number of successful micro-entrepreneurs who can be supported by the
small local markets of many developing countries.
Vocational level
Research carried out by the Department for International Development (United
Kingdom) on post training follow-up in the informal sector in African countries suggests that
there is no single “correct” model for such follow-up, and some methods are clearly not cost-
effective. In a number of countries, for instance, a version of follow-up for vocational skills
training was the extension model by which trained instructors sought to keep in touch with
clients who had come into the rural industrial development centres for specific assistance. In
Kenya and Tanzania such support and follow-up proved to be very expensive and of uncertain
value. Clearly, to be successful, follow-up provision must reflect the specific needs and
characteristics of the client and be tailored to the market.
A proposal for extending the CEFE methodology in Sri Lanka suggests that upon
completion of the vocational training, selected graduates need a full-fledged support
60
programme to help them start up a business. The emphasis here is on ‘selected’ graduates. It
is preferable that people gain work experience and accumulate some financial resources
before they try to start up a business of their own. These students are the most suitable
candidates for business creation and they can be expected to be more successful than the
newcomers.
In any country where the informal sector represents a large part of the economy, it
may be more realistic to seek to develop a limited number of Small Enterprise Development
Institutions to provide entrepreneurial preparation for the informal sector rather than
attempting to introduce enterprise education systematically into all TVET institutions. Such
centres could act as resources for other agencies interested in entrepreneurship development.
Indeed, it is possible to envisage replication of the model of the Entrepreneurship
Development Institute of India (EDI-I) which exists primarily as a facilitator rather than a
provider of entrepreneurial development courses.
5.5 Equality of opportunity
Young women, particularly in developing countries, are often unable to take
advantage of training opportunities due to barriers to entry, discrimination in selection and
gender stereotyping. Stereotyping is frequently found in vocational guidance and counselling
on the part of school staff or employment services, and it discourages young women from
taking training programmes that would lead them to higher long-term earnings and status. In
many countries, for example, young women are encouraged to train in household-related
work, such as food preparation and garment manufacturing, while young men are encouraged
to go for high-skill and modern technology-based training and employment. As a result, many
young women end up in relatively low-skilled and poorly paid occupations with little prospect
of upward mobility. Improved access will help increase the employability of young women. It
must be supplemented by vocational guidance better suited to their capabilities and needs, as
well as by gender-sensitive counselling and placement services to enable young women to
fulfil their potential.
5.6 Exploiting opportunities in the ICT sector
Information and communications technologies are opening up exciting new career
prospects for young people, both as employees and entrepreneurs. In some countries, young
people are already launching thousands of start-up companies that capitalize on technologies
such as wireless telephones and the Internet. In developed countries, industry experts indicate
that jobs exist in all areas of e-business including Java programming and web hosting, as well
as in business support services. In developing countries, opportunities abound for exploiting
the new technologies, offering an unprecedented chance for these countries to “leapfrog”
earlier stages of development. For these benefits to be realized, however, countries need
among other things, to expand their investment in infrastructure needed for the use of ICT and
in the education and training of young people. Such investments should be undertaken by
both the public and private sectors and make use of collaborative local, national and
international networks.
5.7 Financing
A growing trend is for international and national NGOs and businesses to provide
funding to projects, particularly in the non-formal sector. Both these development partners
provide assistance through the sponsorship of courses and promotional events, the
61
development of materials to strengthen curriculum areas, the engagement of mentors from the
local business community and by drawing the school into a broader plan for local economic
and community development.
However, programmes can be costly to set up and operate. Allocations for training
materials and business development services and experts can be substantial. Especially in
developing countries, the possibilities for cost recovery are not always obvious.
5.8 Outreach
If we want people to know about the option of self-employment and business, there is
a need for some sort of information and awareness creation. Young people need a way of
finding out whether or not self-employment or business is a sensible option for them. This
will at the same time serve as a sort of selection mechanism to identify potential future
entrepreneurs. Communication programmes play an essential role in educating, informing,
and motivating young people. Mass media and folk media in popular formats such as music,
serial dramas, and variety shows can also be employed to persuade and motivate young
audiences to engage in activities towards self-empowerment.
Another critical element is to raise awareness among local and national policy makers,
families and communities about their importance in dealing with the issues facing youth. The
support system and institutional mechanism often make or break an enterprise. Functionaries
of support institutions, be they government departments, development organizations or
financial institutions, often do not appreciate their role and that of entrepreneurs in industrial
development. There is also a need to mobilize the community to provide an enabling
environment for young people to become economically self-reliant and to raise awareness of
how the community can support the businesses that are created as a result of different
interventions.
The international community and the private sector are playing a critical role in terms
of outreach. For example, the Inter-American Development Bank programme is helping to
generate awareness among the general public, government agencies and the non-profit and
private sectors on the contributions and value of youth participation and development, best
practices and model programmes.
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6. Conclusions
Different countries are integrating entrepreneurship and enterprise education into
different levels of education through a variety of modalities and at different speeds depending
on the availability of expertise and resources. There is no single pathway or approach and no
single intervention that can be expected to deal with the whole range of problems facing
young people. Though not all the students following these projects will eventually move to
self-employment, the projects are effective in providing a better understanding of enterprise
culture, in supplying students with skills for use in companies and in improving their
knowledge of enterprise and entrepreneurship through practice.
Given the variety of situations, and contexts in which young people find themselves,
as well as the diverse nature of the issues they are dealing with, a package of interventions is
needed. Even within the same target group, there is no “ideal” model that can deal with the
needs of all members. There will be some young people who are skilled but without capital,
others who are between jobs and others still who are survivalists.
However, seeing skills and knowledge (and particularly an increase in their supply) as
the principal point of departure for policies aimed at creating a more competitive and socially
sustainable economy would be to ignore the importance of the wider environment to the life
chances and opportunities available to young people. Schools and colleges on their own
cannot be expected to make a major contribution to a more dynamic market economy. It is
clear that different programmes are likely to succeed where the government, at local and
national levels, is already providing broad-based support to the creation of SMEs within the
framework of national enterprise policy; where local stakeholders are engaged in policy
dialogue; where market-based business support institutions and legal frameworks are evolved
and where youth as a population group are receiving targeted assistance through national
policy frameworks. Without an enabling environment, interventions can only have a short-
term effect and there is little chance of young entrepreneurs growing and surviving outside the
programme framework.
63
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Ball State University College of Business, Institute for Entrepreneurship (2000):http://www.bsu.edu/business/ie.htm
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Dunn, P.; Short, L.: An entrepreneurship major?http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/Research/2001/ASBE/27asbe01.htm
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1992).
65
Gibb, A.: “Entrepreneurship and small business management: Can we afford to neglect them
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Germany, CEFE International, GTZ, 1996).
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and vocational training systems (GTZ, Eschborn, Germany, 1998).
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Iredale, N.: Enterprise education: A briefing paper (Durham, Foundation for Small and
Medium Enterprise Development, University of Durham, 2002).
ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship (2001):http://www.isupjcenter.org
Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership: FastTrac (2001):http://www.fasttrac.org
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designs and strategies”, in Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice (1990).
Proceedings of the Fifth Entrepreneurship Development Programme for Business Faculty
Members, 5-6 Apr. 1991, Baguio City, Philippines.
For more extensive coverage of CEFE in the education system, see Hilpert, A.; Bauer, S.
(eds.): Integrating CEFE components into general and vocational training systems (Eschborn,
Germany, GTZ).
66
67
SEED Working Papers
1. “Home Work in Selected Latin American Countries: A Comparative Overview” (Series on
Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Manuela Tomei, 2000
2. “Homeworkers in Paraguay” (Series on Homeworkers in the Global Economy), María Victoria
Heikel, 2000
3. “Homeworkers in Peru” (Series on Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Francisco Verdera,
2000
4. “Job Quality and Small Enterprise Development” (Series on Job Quality in Micro and Small
Enterprise Development), 1999
5. “The Hidden MSE Service Sector: Research into Commercial BDS Provision to Micro and
Small Enterprises in Viet Nam and Thailand” (Series on Innovation and Sustainability in
Business Support Services (FIT)), Gavin Anderson, 2000
6. “Home Work in Argentina” (Series on Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Elizabeth Jelin,
Matilde Mercado, Gabriela Wyczykier, 2000
7. “Home Work in Brazil: New Contractual Arrangements” (Series on Homeworkers in the
Global Economy), Lena Lavinas, Bila Sorj, Leila Linhares, Angela Jorge, 2000
8. “Home Work in Chile: Past and Present Results of a National Survey” (Series on
Homeworkers in the Global Economy), Helia Henríquez, Verónica Riquelme, Thelma Gálvez,
Teresita Selamé, 2000
9. “Promoting Women’s Entrepreneurship Development based on Good Practice Programmes:
Some Experiences from the North to the South” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship
Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Paula Kantor, 2000
10. “Case Study of Area Responses to Globalization: Foreign Direct Investment, Local Suppliers
and Employment in Györ, Hungary” (Series on Globalization, Area-based Enterprise
Development and Employment), Maarten Keune, András Toth, 2001
11. “Local Adjustment to Globalzation: A Comparative Study of Foreign Investment in Two
Regions of Brazil, Greater ABC and Greater Porto Alegre” (Series on Globalization, Area-
based Enterprise Development and Employment), Glauco Arbix, Mauro Zilbovicius, 2001
12. “Local Response to Globalization: MESTA Region, Bulgaria” (Series on Globalization, Area-
based Enterprise Development and Employment), Hanna Ruszczyk, Ingrid Schubert, Antonina
Stoyanovska, 2001
13. “Ethnic Minorities — Emerging Entrepreneurs in Rural Viet Nam: A Study on the Impact of
Business Training on Ethnic Minorities”, Jens Dyring Christensen, David Lamotte, 2001
14. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in Bangladesh: Factors Affecting Women Entrepreneurs
in Small and Cottage Industries in Bangladesh” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship
Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Nilufer Ahmed Karim, 2001
15. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises: Getting the Policy Environment Right” (Series on
Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Linda
Mayoux, 2001
16. “Regions, Regional Institutions and Regional Development” (Series on Globalization, Area-
based Enterprise Development and Employment), Maarten Keune, 2001
17. “ICTs and Enterprises in Developing Countries: Hype or Opportunity?” (Series on Innovation
and Sustainability in Business Support Services (FIT)), Jim Tanburn and Alwyn Didar Singh,
2001
18. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in Africa and Asia: Lessons drawn from Bangladesh, the
Philippines, Tunisia and Zimbabwe” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and
Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Pamela Nichols Marcucci, 2001
68
19. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in the Caribbean: Lessons from Barbados, Suriname and
Trinidad and Tobago” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender in
Enterprises — WEDGE), Carol Ferdinand (ed.), 2001
20. “Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in Bulgaria” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship
Development and Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Antonina Stoyanovska, 2001
21. “Women Entrepreneurs in Albania” (Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and
Gender in Enterprises — WEDGE), Mimoza Bezhani, 2001
22. “Ajuste Local à Globalização: um estudo comparativo do investimento estrangeiro direto no
ABC e na Grande Porto Alegre” (Série sobre Globalização, Desenvolvimento de Empresas ao
Nível Local e Emprego), Glauco Arbix, Mauro Zilbovicius, 2002
23. “Small Enterprises, Big Challenges: A Literature Review on the Impact of the Policy
Environment on the Creation and Improvement of Jobs within Small Enterprises”, (Series on
Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Gerhard Reinecke, 2002
24. “Méthodes et Instruments d’Appui au Secteur Informel en Afrique Francophone”, Carlos
Maldonado, Anne-Lise Miélot, Cheikh Badiane, 2003 (forthcoming)
25. “Artisanat et Emploi dans les Provinces de Settat et El Jadida”, Gérard Barthélemy, 2002
26. “Employment Creation and Employment Quality in African Manufacturing Firms”, Micheline
Goedhuys, 2002
27E. “An Information Revolution for Small Enterprise in Africa: Experience in Interactive Radio
Formats in Africa” (Series on Innovation and Sustainability in Business Support Services
(FIT)), Mary McVay, 2002
27F. “Une révolution de l’information pour les petites entreprises en Afrique : L’expérience en
matière de formats radio interactifs en Afrique” (Série Innovation et viabilité des services
d’appui aux entreprises), Mary McVay, 2002
28. “Assessing Markets for Business Development Services: What have we learned so far?”
(Series on Innovation and Sustainability in Business Support Services (FIT)), Alexandra
Overy Miehlbradt, 2002
29. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
in Pakistan” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment),
Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority of Pakistan (SMEDA), 2002
30. “Creating Market Opportunities for Small Enterprises: Experiences of the Fair Trade
Movement”, Andy Redfern and Paul Snedker, 2002
31. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in Small Enterprises in
Viet Nam” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment),
Pham Thi Thu Hang, 2002
32. “Business Training Markets for Small Enterprises in Developing Countries: What do we know
so far about the potential?” (Series on Innovation and Sustainability in Business Support
Services (FIT)), Akiko Suzuki, 2002
33. “Organizing Workers in Small Enterprises: The Experience of the Southern African Clothing
and Textile Workers’ Union” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Mark
Bennett, 2002
34. “Protecting Workers in Micro and Small Enterprises: Can Trade Unions Make a Difference?
A Case Study of the Bakery and Confectionery Sub-sector in Kenya” (Series on
Representation and Organization Building), Gregg J. Bekko and George M. Muchai, 2002
35. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in SMMEs in South
Africa” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Jennifer
Mollentz, 2002
69
36. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of Street Trading in South Africa”
(Series on Representation and Organization Building) Shirin Motala, 2002
37. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Clothing Industry in South
Africa” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Mark Bennett, 2003
38. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Building Industry in South
Africa” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Tanya Goldman, 2003
39. “Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Minibus Taxi Industry in South
Africa” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Jane Barrett, 2003
40. “Rags or Riches? Phasing-Out the Multi-Fibre Arrangement”, Auret van Heerden, Maria
Prieto Berhouet, Cathrine Caspari, 2003
41. “Flexibilizing Employment: An Overview”, Kim Van Eyck, 2003
42. “Role of the Informal Sector in Coping with Economic Crisis in Thailand and Zambia”, Gerry
Finnegan and Andrea Singh (eds.), 2003
43. “Opportunities for SMEs in Developing Countries to Upgrade in a Global Economy” (Series
on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), John Humphrey, 2003
44. “Participation in Global Value Chains as a Vehicle for SME Upgrading: A Literature Review”
(Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Cathrine
Caspari, 2003
45. “Local Implementation of Quality, Labour and Environmental Standards: Opportunities for
Upgrading in the Footwear Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and
Global Value Chains), Lizbeth Navas-Alemán and Luiza Bazan, 2003
46. “Industrial Renewal and Inter-firm Relations in the Supply Chain of the Brazilian Automotive
Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Anne
Caroline Posthuma, 2003 (forthcoming)
47. “The Competitive Advantage of Buying Networks in Wood Products Value Chains” (Series
on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Jeff Readman, 2003
(forthcoming)
48. “High Road Upgrading in the ‘Third Italy’: Lessons for Integrated Small Enterprise
Development and Good Labour Conditions in Developing Countries” (Series on Upgrading in
Small Enterprise Clusters and Global Value Chains), Alberto Criscuolo, 2003 (forthcoming)
49. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: The Music Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters and
Global Value Chains), Cecile Lambert, 2003
50. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: The Ethno-tourism Industry” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise
Clusters and Global Value Chains), Steven Bolnick, 2003 (forthcoming)
51. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: Crafts and Visual Arts” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters
and Global Value Chains), The Trinity Session, 2003 (forthcoming)
52. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: The Performing Arts and Dance” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise
Clusters and Global Value Chains), Annabell Lebethe, 2003
53. “Promoting the Culture Sector through Job Creation and Small Enterprise Development in
SADC Countries: Television and Film” (Series on Upgrading in Small Enterprise Clusters
and Global Value Chains), Avril Goffe and Natalie Jacklin, 2003 (forthcoming)
70
54. “Promouvoir un environnement de développement des micro et petites entreprises guinéennes
favorable à la création d’emplois décents” (Série Cadre stratégique favorable à l’emploi dans
les petites entreprises), Moussa Kourouma, 2003
55. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in Micro and Small
Enterprises in Tanzania” (Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise
Employment) Paul Tibandebage, Samuel Wangwe, Moses Msuya, Darlene Mutalemwa, 2003
56. “Public Policy and Employment in Micro and Small Enterprises in Peru” (Series on
Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Juan Chacaltana, 2003
(forthcoming)
57. “Business Centres for Small Enterprise Development: Experiences and Lessons from Eastern
Europe”, Merten Sievers, Klaus Haftendorn, Astrid Bessler, 2003
58. “Promoting Female Entrepreneurship in Mauritius: Strategies in Training and Development”,
(Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality — WEDGE),
Patricia Day-Hookoomsing, Vedna Essoo, 2003
59. “Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship, Part I: An analysis of awareness and promotion
programmes in formal and non-formal education”, Klaus Haftendorn, Carmela Salzano, 2003
59. “Facilitating Youth Entrepreneurship, Part II: A directory of awareness and promotion
programmes in formal and non-formal education”, Klaus Haftendorn, Carmela Salzano, 2003
(forthcoming)
60. “Organizing in South Africa’s Informal Economy: An Overview of Four Sectoral Case
Studies” (Series on Representation and Organization Building), Tanya Goldman, 2003
61. “Creating a Conducive Policy Environment for Employment Creation in MSEs in Chile”
(Series on Conducive Policy Environment for Small Enterprise Employment), Carolina Flores,
2003
62. “Quels facteurs influencent la croissance et l’emploi décent dans les petites enterprises en
Guinée?” (Série Cadre stratégique favorable à l’emploi dans les petites entreprises), Moussa
Kourouma, 2003 (forthcoming)
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