Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) — Meaning, Needs and Objectives

4. Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) — Meaning, Needs and Objectives

Meaning of EDP. An Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) is a planned, organised programme designed to develop entrepreneurial competencies in a person and to help that person set up and run an enterprise successfully. It is not a single lecture or a one-day motivational talk; it is a structured course that combines motivation, knowledge, skill-training and hands-on guidance, so that a potential entrepreneur is carried all the way from having a vague desire to start a business to actually launching and managing one. In short, an EDP is the practical instrument through which the abstract idea "competencies can be developed" is put into effect.

Why EDPs are needed. The need for EDPs arises directly from everything discussed above:

1. Competencies must be developed, not assumed. Since research shows entrepreneurial competencies can be learned, a systematic programme is needed to actually develop them in interested people.
2. To identify and select the right persons. Not everyone who wishes to start a business has the aptitude to succeed. EDPs use selection tests and interviews to identify persons with genuine potential, so that training effort is well spent.
3. To reduce the high failure rate of new units. Many small units fail for want of planning, market knowledge or management skill; EDPs supply exactly these, improving survival rates.
4. To bridge the knowledge and skill gap. A first-time entrepreneur usually knows little about preparing a project report, arranging finance, choosing technology, or complying with legal formalities; an EDP fills this gap.
5. To promote self-employment and remove unemployment. EDPs turn job-seekers into job-givers, which is a central aim of national policy in a country with widespread unemployment.
6. To encourage first-generation and weaker-section entrepreneurs. Special EDPs are run for women, scheduled castes and tribes, unemployed youth and rural people, who might never start a business without such support.
7. To promote balanced and rural industrial growth. By training entrepreneurs across regions, EDPs help spread enterprise beyond the established industrial centres.

Objectives of EDP. The main objectives of an Entrepreneurship Development Programme are to:

1. Develop and strengthen entrepreneurial competencies — the motives, knowledge, skills and attitudes discussed earlier — in the participants;
2. Identify and select potential entrepreneurs with the right aptitude for a chosen line of business;
3. Motivate people towards self-employment and build the confidence needed to start a venture;
4. Help participants analyse the environment and select a suitable project / product in the light of demand, resources and their own ability;
5. Impart the basic knowledge and skills of management — production, marketing, finance, and preparing a viable project report;
6. Make participants aware of the support available from banks, financial institutions and government agencies, and of the procedures for availing it;
7. Enable participants to actually set up and successfully run their enterprises, and to provide follow-up support in the crucial early period;
8. Ultimately, to widen the base of entrepreneurship in society and thereby promote employment, self-employment and balanced economic development.

The broad phases of an EDP. Although designs vary, most EDPs move through three broad phases, which help you see how the objectives are achieved in practice:

• Pre-training phase — publicity, identification of a suitable enterprise/area, arranging infrastructure and resource persons, and the selection of participants through application, tests and interviews.
• Training phase — the actual programme: building achievement motivation, imparting knowledge of management, developing skills, guiding the choice of product and the preparation of the project report, and exposing participants to real enterprises through field visits. …