Microenterprises Training Services

closed

This Multilateral Investment Fund operation tests and demonstrates the feasibility of establishing, on a small scale, a sustainable market for training services to small and microentrepreneurs (SMEs), in order to improve their competitiveness and productivity. The three components are: a) an Information and Referral Service (IRS); b) a Training Voucher System (TVS); and c) a Training Technologies Development Fund (TTDF). The first component will: a) facilitate the access of SMEs to the available supply of training services and, eventually, to other non-financial SME services; b) orient the suppliers of these training services regarding the needs and preferences of the SMEs; and c) facilitate client/supplier negotiations regarding adequacy, quality, and price of the training courses. The Guyana Volunteers Consultancy Ltd. (GVC), the executing agency, will establish three or four strategically located "information desks" in different cities, which will: a) channel two-way information to and from suppliers and clients b) demand preferences and course offerings; c) maintain a database of information on clients; d) establish and maintain a database on suppliers and courses; e) publicize and disseminate information about the program components; and f) report to GVC and the Program Consultative Committee (PCC) the statistics on voucher disbursement, courses offered and demanded, and qualitative information received from potential and actual clients and training institutions (TIs). The second component will: a) promote SME demand for training through the application of a direct partial subsidy (vouchers); b) promote the adaptation of the existing, and potential, supply of these services to the needs and preferences of the SMEs, by requiring that the vouchers collected by the participating TIs be redeemed after course completion and initial payment of cash co-payment by the clients; and c) generate increasing sustainability of the SME training market. The third component supports the identification, diffusion, and application of pedagogic and administrative innovations and teaching technologies within the participating TIs, giving them expert advice and training in how to structure training products and achieve financial self-sufficiency.