Innovative Training Helps Entrepreneurship Flourish
Nugzar Tateshvili, the founder and acting chairman of the Akhaltsikhe Center for Social Development in Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia, recently launched a new training course to support business education in his region. The course, entitled “Small Businesses for a Better Future,” is based on materials and information he received as a participant in a USAID Community Connections program visit to the U.S.
According to Tateshvili, many people in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region do not have a solid understanding of business, although the community is well-educated. “This is very common not only in the rural areas of Georgia, but in all the post Soviet countries that are changing from a planned economy to a market economy,” he says.
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Nugzar Tateshvili conducts a training course at the Youth Educational Center in Akhaltsikhe, Georgia
Photo Credit: Community Connections |
The training program aims to increase opportunities for adult employment by teaching students how to create and manage a business, create business plans, and market their services or products. The program provides 21 hours of training over the course of a month for 12 people. All interested citizens of the region over the age of 18 can register to attend the trainings free of charge.
The results from Tateshvili’s training program have exceeded his expectations. Of the 62 people who completed one of the six courses held between April and October 2007, 11 have started their own businesses, including a café, a sewing workshop, and a local market. Another 14 of the students have found jobs, mostly in the banking sector. Fifteen are still students at local universities, but feel the skills they learned in the course will assist them when they start looking for jobs. Care International appraised two of the business plans that students created and gave them high marks.
Tateshvili came up with the idea for the course while visiting the Bluefield, West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the West Virginia Development Office during his Community Connections exchange. He is excited by the success of the project and will continue using his Community Connections experience to help the development of his region.
“There are lots of other interesting projects and initiatives I have in mind, which I came up with in the U.S. and will implement in the future,” he said.
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