Program Matches Student Ambition with Market Realities
“The project developed by the students was impeccable! It encompassed all aspects of a business plan including marketing strategy, consumer analysis, operations planning, and the financial status of the company,” commented Gia Tsintsadze, Director of Vagi, Ltd., the sole manufacturer of a variety of jam, juices, and sauces in Guria, Georgia. Faced by the need to increase its production volume, Vagi, Ltd. approached the Batumi Office of the Georgian Business Development Center (GBDC) for support, which then turned to its cadre of student consultants.
In 2006, the Tbilisi Office of GBDC Caucasia ran a four-month pilot Business Development and Employment Program supported by the USAID Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Support project. The program consisted of two core elements: entrepreneurial training for 404 students, employed youth, and businesspeople; and the Job Placement Forum 2006 designed to set up a database of young job seekers so they could gain employment in local companies. More than 50 companies and 5,000 young persons participated in the forum. As a result, nearly half of the students trained as office managers, credit officers, accountants, sales agents, and marketing specialists gained employment in the private sector. Due to the pilot program’s success, the GBDC student consulting project continues, and USAID is replicating the model, launching the Regional Student Consulting Project in Adjara in 2007.
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Professional training enables students to gain employment as specialized business consultants in Georgia’s growing economy
Photo Credit: SME Support Project |
In an effort to link student consultants with companies seeking consultancy services, GBDC identified two students, Giorgi Murvanidze and Nodar Chikovani, to work with Vagi to develop a grant proposal for the Millennium Challenge Georgia’s Agribusiness Development Activity (MCG ADA). Conducting research on how to increase production, the student consultants recommended organizing a consolidation center for fruits and vegetables with 2,500 local farmers. MCG ADA funded the proposal for $100,000. It was one of nine successful grant proposals GBDC’s student consulting team has developed through the MCG ADA.
Within two years, this investment is projected to increase Vagi’s production volume by at least 300 percent. In addition, farmers participating in the consolidation center will have an incentive to produce higher quality fruit and vegetables in larger quantities, knowing they can sell their products at a reasonable price.
“This is just one of the examples showcasing how students and young people in Georgia have the willingness and capability to adapt to a new labor environment within a relatively short period of time. What we try to achieve is to give them a real chance to tailor their ambitions to today’s market realities,” says Sergi Baramidze, Director of GBDC Caucasia. In this respect, GBDC Caucasia demonstrated the effectiveness of providing business-oriented youth with professional training on entrepreneurial skills which enable them to provide specialized consulting services in areas such as agribusiness and tourism for micro, small and medium enterprises.
Demna Dzirkvadze, Director of the Batumi Office of GBDC, has seen similar results. “The program was a valuable experience for young people in Adjara. It helped them step out of their comfort zone of typical academic projects, quizzes, and papers, and develop practical skills for future jobs and business opportunities.” The resulting employment figures were no less impressive in Adjara, with 34 students employed within the project implementation period and more equipped to gain employment in the future.
USAID’s SME Support project is committed to extending the success of student consulting service projects by expanding the Regional Student Consulting Project. In December 2007, GBDC Caucasia, in partnership with the SME Support project, the OSCE Mission to Georgia, and the Akhaltsikhe Institute, launched the Regional Student Consulting Program in Samtskhe-Javakheti. As Dan A. Berkshire, Chief of Party for the SME Support project emphasized, “We all are committed to support young people’s motivation to be independent and will spare neither time nor effort to support their determination.”
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