Last week I had the chance to attend the Training of Trainers program for social non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which take part in the Micro-enterprise Acceleration Program (MAP) in Sierre, Switzerland.

The training was organised by MEA-I, a recently founded organization, of which HP is a main sponsor. MEA-I is in charge of operating MAP whose aim is to educate small businesses with up to ten employees on how to grow their businesses using IT.

The main goal of the training was to introduce the MAP curriculum to new MAP trainers to enable them to offer MAP training as part of their ongoing services to entrepreneurial clients in their local centers. Currently there are 38 MAP centers in 13 countries in place.

The curriculum highlights business challenges that micro-entrepreneurs face and technology solutions that address those challenges. It’s designed for entrepreneurs to participate in hands-on activities that build their skills and help them assess their abilities and needs. The curriculum applies experiential methodologies and is highly interactive. Sample topics covered include how to create marketing communication materials (e.g. flyers and websites), use financial software, undertake project planning, and how to use smart email and internet techniques etc.

I was positively impressed by the diversity of cultures and countries present at the training. I met NGO representatives and trainers from countries such as Portugal, Lebanon, Finland, Italy, Malta, Egypt and France.

It was especially interesting to see that the localized versions of the MAP curriculum, which was centrally created by HP and its partners, are able to serve the needs of so many different local markets and address their local challenges.

My goal in attending was to see how the curriculum could also be suitable for educating a slightly different audience such as students or graduates.

As one of our 3 philanthropic focus areas for 2007 is called “Economic Development”, I am interested to see how we can leverage from existing programs such as MAP for further programs that advance the economic development of different groups.

Even though I could only attend a part of the 5-day training, I believe the curriculum is a great tool and is certainly suitable for other audiences, which we might address with new Economic Development initiatives.

As we are getting closer in finalizing new programs, I will post more information on this blog. If you are interested to see which particular economic development initiative our colleagues in HP Asia Pacific have just launched, please visit my colleague Rita’s blog.

Daniela Opp
Manager, Social Investments and Economic Development, HP EMEA