MSME that offers four courses spread across each quarter

On an average, 25 young entrepreneurs from African, South Asian and West Asian countries study product development and marketing strategy in the city every month to go back and develop their own businesses.

At the National Institute for Medium and Small Enterprises (MSME) that offers four courses spread across each quarter, youth from countries like Sudan, Nigeria, South Africa, Eritrea and Namibia have enrolled over the past two years. Currently, a batch of 25 Eritrean students are being trained to develop bamboo products. The products developed will be used for household utility and even construction of houses in rural areas in their country. The young entrepreneurs are also taught curation of bamboo for developing artefacts.

During the three-month course, they learn product identification and preparation of low investment project profiles that will help them spend less to reap more returns.In Eretria, where there is an open market for bamboo products in both tourism industry and development sector, MSME training is expected to help students perform better at budgeting, product development and marketing, Sanjeev Chaturvedi, director of the national institute for MSME tells The Hindu. Different batches of students are taught digital marketing as it is catching up, he adds. Even the skills of trainers for young entrepreneurs are honed at the institute to support their students back home.

Around 13 course in the institute are meant exclusively for foreign students. The batches start in August, October, December and June for foreign nationals. “Most students who enrol are young, allowing them many more years for product development and marketing. While we do not offer jobs, courses makes them self-sufficient to start their own businesses when they go back,” he adds About 47% of the students who received training at the institute have launched their own ventures in their native countries.The course has been popular among students from countries in Asia as well with at least one third of the foreign student population coming from Myanmar, Bhutan, Malaysia and Singapore. “Sustaining the venture is most crucial in entrepreneurship. On behalf of the institute, we offer our foreign students clear instructions on approaching credible financial institutions,” Mr. Chaturvedi says.

International students are also given training in English language as part of the course to give them an extra edge. Women entrepreneurs among foreign nationals are also encouraged to enrol in courses exclusively meant for their benefit. “Of the foreign students who come here, a good percentage happen to be women,” he says.