 February
10, 2003 - Washington DC.- With its capacity for innovation
and leadership, Latin America's youth holds one of the
keys to future development of local economies. However,
youth programs to promote entrepreneurial behaviors and
teach business skills aren't readily available in all
the countries of the region. To address this, academics
and practitioners in Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and
Peru are joining forces to build a regional curriculum
for entrepreneurial education. For the first time, content
is being developed for GDLN via GDLN.
Coordinated by the Young Americas Business Trust, the
World Bank Institute and GDLN LAC, working groups in
these three countries have been meeting via videoconference
to define best practice in entrepreneurial education
by examining local programs under implementation and
gaining knowledge about the Action Learning approach.
As a next step, they are determining each group's forte
to begin to build this multi-country collaboration in
course development. The final product will be a training
of trainers in an entrepreneurial curriculum that can
be implemented locally. Based on discussions so far,
participants have decided that the course should be
relevant to different ethnic and cultural backgrounds
as well as both rural and urban environments.
Over the coming weeks, the working groups - individually
or in collaboration - will each develop separate slices
of the course pie. As the groups identify which areas
they will develop, they will incorporate additional
experts into their course design teams, such as instructional
designers or subject matter experts. Course teams will
also count on pedagogical support through virtual "office
hours" (via Instant Messenger or telephone) with
World Bank Institute Learning Specialist Debra Beattie.
Once it has been finalized, the course will be delivered
to other countries in the region.
Organizations that have contributed staff to the country
working groups include the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje
(SENA) and the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia);
the Corporación Financiera Nacional, Globatel,
and the "Jóvenes Empresarios" program
(Ecuador); the Asociacion de Jovenes Empresarios de
Lima, Ministry of Education, the Pontificia Universidad
Católica del Peru, the Universidad de San Martin
de Porres (Peru); and Universidad Rafael Landívar
(Guatemala). Also participating on best practice have
been the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development
in Nova Scotia, Canada; the Mount Carmel International
Training Center in Israel.
The entrepreneurial curriculum course is a component
of YABT's work in support of young business leaders
and includes on line resources as well as workshops
and exchanges among the region's enterprising youth.
For more information, please contact YABT at ybiz@oas.org
or brabin@worldbank.org
of the GDLN LAC team.
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