Entrepreneur and Technology (Empretec) Programme

Background
The Entrepreneur and Technology (Empretec) programme is an integrated capacity-building programme of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The programme promotes the creation of sustainable support structures that help promising entrepreneurs build innovative and internationally competitive small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Empretec also encourages the formation of mutually beneficial business linkages among SMEs and Trans-national Corporations (TNCs). As a result, it contributes to the creation of a dynamic private sector and an open entrepreneurial culture. It is therefore a vital complement to effective macroeconomic policies and enabling legal and regulatory framework.

The term Empretec, which is a Spanish acronym for emprendedores (entrepreneurs) and tecnologìa (technology) was first introduced in Argentina in 1988, with the core objective of holding entrepreneurship training workshops (ETWs). The entrepreneurship training workshops encourage individual entrepreneurs to focus on their role as entrepreneurs and challenge them to critically examine their personal strengths and weaknesses and learn how to sustain their businesses. Since inception, the Empretec programme has been initiated in twenty-seven countries, assisting more than 80 000 entrepreneurs through local market-driven business support centres.

Programme Methodology
The Empretec programme strives to identify and reinforce entrepreneurial competencies that are associated with successful traits, through self-assessment and individual transformation and business stimulation activities during entrepreneurship training workshops. These ‘motivation achievement’ workshops encourage individuals to focus on their role as entrepreneurs and challenge them to critically examine their personal strengthens and weaknesses. This is meant to provide an opportunity for participants to become more familiar with personality competencies of successful entrepreneurs, strengthen and enhance those personalities in themselves, and eventually be able to apply the personalities in their own businesses.

The training method is highly interactive. It involves structured exercises, group dynamics, diagnostic tools, business events and other activities, which are designed to challenge the participants to focus on such issues as their ability and willingness to seek and attain continuous improvements in quality, efficiency, growth, and profitability. This is achieved through learning by doing. The training enables participants to become aware of the need for continuous improvement as a competitive strategy in every aspect of their business.

As a result of the entrepreneur training workshops, successful graduates of the programme obtain a clear vision of what they want to do with their businesses in the short and long term. In the words of many participants, Empretec is a "culture of entrepreneurship" common to entrepreneurs who are open minded, forward thinking, look for win-win situations, want to improve and "speak the same language". Therefore, they trust each other and are more likely to do business among themselves.

Generally, Empretec is a programme that focuses on improving the core entrepreneurial behaviours of business owners that influence their conduct, and above all, the results of their business.

Target Beneficiaries
Empretec does not define its target group by assets, turnover, or number of employees. The beneficiaries are identified on the basis of both their personal entrepreneurial competencies and their innovative approach to business.
The direct beneficiaries of the Empretec programme include existing SMEs that have a track record of good business performance, potential entrepreneurs with promising business ideas, and start-up companies with good bankable project proposals. It is expected that the individual development of the entrepreneurs that takes place during an entrepreneur training workshop will lead to SME growth, linkages with larger enterprises including transnational corporations (TNCs), job creation, increased investment, and regional economic development.

Implementation Procedures
The local UNCTAD-Empretec coordination team collaborates with the team in Geneva at the international level in the:
• promotion of networks and contacts among national Empretec programmes
• exchange of information on ‘best practices’ to each of the country projects
• organisation of international Empretec programme meetings
• identification of new trends in business development
• development of new training and consulting modules
• cooperation with specialised agencies and services
• conduction of research on SME and policy-related issues
• dissemination of information on global economic trends
• protection of Empretec’s trademark and copyrights.
These UNCTAD-Empretec coordination teams (local and international) carryout tasks such as:
• initiation of country programmes
• adaptation of the Empretec concept to national requirements
• promotion of initial fund raising
• identification of local counterpart institutions
• mobilisation of local stakeholders
• development of sustainability strategies
• selection and training of local programme staff and trainers
• transfer of methodology
• monitoring progress in project implementation.

As implementing agency, UNCTAD establishes institutional structures and networks in recipient countries which have the capacity to implement the Empretec programme according to best practice standards. UNCTAD is also responsible for transferring the Empretec concept to the host country with the support of local public and private partners.

Although the implementation of the Empretec programme depends on the country-specific needs of the beneficiary country, the following are the general steps necessary in the implementation of the programme:
 UNCTAD-Empretec, in cooperation with interested local institutions, selects a partner institution that is capable to offer their local resources to host the training workshops
 UNCTAD-Empretec will then provide experienced UNCTAD-Empretec Master Trainers who will deliver at the Empretec Training Workshops (often at least six workshops) to 30 participants per workshop on the site of the chosen partner institution.
 After the first Entrepreneur Training Workshops, the UNCTAD-Empretec Master Trainers select Empretec trainer candidates from the Entrepreneur Training Workshop participants. The trainer candidates assist UNCTAD-Empretec Master Trainers in the delivery of the remaining scheduled Entrepreneur Training Workshops until they are fully capable of delivering those workshops on their own and certified by the UNCTAD-Empretec Master Trainers as UNCTAD-Empretec National Trainers.
 In conjunction with the entrepreneur training workshops, UNCTAD-Empretec work with their local partner(s) to assess the technical business skill needs of local entrepreneurs and address these by providing post-entrepreneur training workshop training courses using existing material or creating new modules.
 After transferring the methodology to the new Empretec centre, it is expected that future entrepreneur training workshops will be planned and implemented by the local/regional staff - within the framework of the UNCTAD-Empretec programme. UNCTAD however continues to provide its expertise and guidance from the UNCTAD-Empretec Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.