Data from a 1997-98 training needs assessment of informal sector operators found that over 75 per cent of informal sector operators had primary education, while only seven per cent had attended vocational training courses. Most had acquired their skills in a variety of trades through apprenticeships or directly from their peers, but were unaware of the theoretical aspects (reported in Mlingi, 2000, p. 81). Only 5.3 per cent of the MSEs in the Swisscontact (2003) study had received any entrepreneurship training, and even fewer in new product technologies or costing and pricing. This suggests that most MSEs are “learning through trial and error” or from the practical know-how of other operators.
SIDO provides training for MSEs under its Business Management pillar. It uses a number of approaches and materials, including the ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) materials. SIDO uses a holistic approach in the development of clients by linking technical and management training and consulting services with micro-finance services. Women clients make up the majority of those seeking marketing support, and in response SIDO recently hired a woman as Marketing Director.
Technical training in food processing, as supported by SIDO and UNIDO, has been available for at least seven years. Almost 2,000 people, mostly women, have been trained. However, only about 200 of the women trainees have been able to develop meaningful and sustainable enterprises, mostly very small, informal food-processing activities operating mainly from their home kitchens (UDEC, 2002). It is not clear why this investment has not generated greater results, especially because this training also includes entrepreneurship components. Part of the problem could be the stringent regulatory requirements for operating a food processing business. As well, the costs of premises and those for necessary testing expenses are often beyond the reach of most of the women.
The Tanzanian approach to working with women’s enterprise development from a training perspective is predominantly sectoral and group-based, with technical training at its core. Entrepreneurship training elements are sometimes included, but often women receiving technical training are not well equipped with the entrepreneurial and business management skills that they will need to start or expand a business. Except in isolated cases (e.g., the work of SIDO and UNIDO with women in the food processing sector), these women receive little follow-up support when the training is finished.
TGT provides training to their clients in a broad range of management skills, including marketing skills and how to access loans, but the reach is limited.
Overall, there are limited opportunities for women to participate in entrepreneurship training. An official from the Ministry of Community Development, Gender (Women)
and Children stated:
If we build women’s capacity in entrepreneurship, then we develop them into resources.
What’s needed is a training institution for women and we need women mentors in different sectors and areas of expertise to help train others. We need a women’s entrepreneurship centre to do all of this!
To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.
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International Labour Organization
(Visit International's Website)
As the world's only tripartite
multilateral agency, the ILO is dedicated
to bringing decent work and livelihoods,
job-related security and better living
standards to the people of both poor and
rich countries. It helps to attain those
goals by promoting rights at work,
encouraging opportunities for decent
employment, enhancing social protection
and strengthening dialogue on work-related
issues.
The ILO is the international meeting place
for the world of work. We are the experts
on work and employment and particularly on
the critical role that these issues play
in bringing about economic development and
progress. At the heart of our mission is
helping countries build the institutions
that are the bulwarks of democracy and to
help them become accountable to the
people.
The ILO formulates international labour
standards in the form of Conventions and
Recommendations setting minimum standards
of basic labour rights: freedom of
association, the right to organize,
collective bargaining, abolition of forced
labour, equality of opportunity and
treatment and other standards addressing
conditions across the entire spectrum of
work-related issues.
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