International Courses held in 2007
NISPED-ICECOS and INCEP-SME hosted delegations of cooperative leaders and small and medium business entrepreneurs in 9 courses during 2007. Our 135 course participants came from 24 countries: Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Albania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kosovo, Jamaica, Mexico, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, China, India and the Solomon Islands.
In addition to frontal lectures and workshops, all of our courses included study visits to Israeli institutions and organizations and tours to important cultural and historic sites in Israel.
Our courses were led by NISPED's experts, Rafi Goldman, Shmuel Bahat and Dr. Yehudah Paz
Below follws a short summary of courses held last year. For information on our course offerings for 2008, please read more here
- Change Management, Entrepreneurship and Leadership in the Era of Globalization: A Value Based Cooperative Approach:
This course examined globalization, liberalization, increasing concentration of business and the rapid advances of technology and their connected to the creation of cooperatives for making radical changes in structures, processes, policies, products and services. The course helped cooperative leaders face the additional challenge of developing innovative responses to the business environment in the context of challenges arising from the threats of environmental degradation, and loss of social and cultural identity. The central focus of the course was on the establishment of the core processes leading to effective change management and a search for how best practice in the process of change management might be understood from the cooperative business perspective.
- Comprehensive and Effective Support Systems for SMEs – A Central Contribution to Development
This course focused on the SME community and drew on Israeli and on international experience concerning the best ways of establishing and managing effective and efficient support systems at both the national as well as the local and regional levels. The course was conducted with the support and cooperation of: ISMEA - the Israel SME Authority, a joint government – private sector organisation.
The main topics covered included: Contribution of micro, small and medium enterprises to the economy, to the society and to the individual; main problems and constraints affecting SMEs; the role of central, local and regional governments in promoting entrepreneurship and SMEs; strategies of development; establishing and managing comprehensive support systems at the central and the local/regional level; integrating financial and non -financial support measures; training, consulting and information services for SMEs; linking vocational/technological education and entrepreneurial/business training; cooperation between government, the private business sector and NGOs for SME promotion; managing local / regional and specialized Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs); the role of SMEs in developing rural regions; the contribution of an industrial park to local and regional development; SMEs in the service of specific sectors of the population, such as: women, young people, handicapped persons; supporting R&D and high-tech start-ups in their first stages; the era of globalisation - support measures for small and beginning exporters. In addition, we held study visits and usiness meetings with Israeli companies working in Nigeria.
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This course, co-conducted with theThe Israeli Export Institute - http://www.export.gov.il/Eng/ Israeli - and with the support of The Israel SME Authority (ISMEA) - http://www.asakim.org.il/english.php - dealt with the challenges and threats of globalization, exploring the advantages of comprehensive and integral support systems for SMEs. It placed special emphasis on support measures aimed at increasing their competitive capabilities and export potential. Course participants included: Decision makers; senior staff of government ministries involved in economic and industrial development; regional and local governments; entrepreneurial and SME support and promotion agencies; senior staff of export promotion institutions, banks and development financial institutions, leaders of chambers of commerce and of economic and social associations (NGOs); SME associations: international organizations; as well as for trainers, business consultants and economists. We studied: Contribution of SMEs to the economy, society and the individual; the role of central, local and regional governments in promoting entrepreneurship and SMEs, and their access to international markets; establishing and managing comprehensive support systems for SMEs; financial and non- financial support measures; role and structure of export promotion organisations; cooperation between the government and the private sector; local/regional-level Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs); the globalisation process: from the export-import approach to international cooperation and joint ventures; support measures for small and beginning exporters; supporting R&D and high-tech start-ups; information sources for SMEs; Internet and E-commerce; international marketing, identification of niches and penetration of new markets; international trade fairs; groupings of SMEs for joint marketing of products / services; international trading companies in the service of SMEs; entrepreneurial education - from childhood to adulthood; and country presentations by the participants. | | |
