Unpacking the notion of ‘good practice’ in entrepreneurship and enterprise skills is the focus of an ETF conference to be held in Brussels from 14-16 November. The conference will bring together practitioners and policymakers working on entrepreneurship and enterprise skills. The conference will review a methodology and tools to improve confidence and facilitate exchange of good practice among training providers.

‘Set against today’s economic climate and the need to compete, policymakers and practitioners must find more cost-effective ways of improving entrepreneurship potential and quality skills,’ says  Anthony Gribben who leads the conference programme at the ETF. ‘Good-practice sharing is one option to reduce time, cost and effort in bringing innovation and value to the enterprise world,’ he says.

Good-practice developments, however, are constrained by two factors, according to Gribben. Firstly, access to good practice is most often confined to closed networks or specific events. Training providers and businesses often rely on hearsay for access to more innovative developments in their field. Secondly, good practice is often subjectively defined i.e., training providers promote their work without any systematic review or evaluation, which entails risks. The ETF’s project addresses these issues.

The conference agenda centres on a number of good practitioners from the ETF partner countries (Armenia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Serbia) and the EU (Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK) who have road-tested the ETF’s good practice peer review methodology. The training providers work in the following areas:

•    training for young people’s start-ups (up to 30 years of age);
•    training/mentoring for women entrepreneurs;
•    promoting skills for small enterprises embarking on international trade.

The conference will comprise policymakers and practitioners from ETF’s 31 partner countries. Other participants include high-level representatives from the EU institutions, international organisations and the world of small business.

The ETF conference will be held during Global Entrepreneurship Week, which is the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation.
 

Photo: The ETF's Anthony Gribben (right) at a preparatory workshop before the conference.