IEPC 2010, UK

At the second International Enterprise Promotion Convention in Harrogate, UK on 8-10 November 2010 I found the technical content and the networking opportunities worth my journey to Harrogate.

There were a total of over 450 registered delegates over the three days, including sponsors, supporters, speakers and exhibitors. Delegates came from 30 different countries.

In total there were over 120 technical presentations on best practice and innovation in the creation and support of small businesses world-wide. You will soon be able to see almost all of the presentations via their website: www.enterprisepromotion.org/presentations You can search for a named speaker or a topic and then click on the title of the paper to see the summary, as published in the Convention Handbook. Then click on the download button on the right hand side of the page to see the PowerPoint Presentation where available.

About six delegates attended from India and three of them presented papers in the various sessions.

I was fortunate to present a Key paper in the Plenary B session on 9 Nov. on the subject of :
Entrepreneurship Education, Policy and Practice: India Government and NGO Cooperation.

Kashmira Wagh was a co-presenter. She handled the operational aspects of the electronic presentation and this made the Plenary presentation a good success.
The Plenary paper briefly traced the path of Entrepreneurship Development in India.The efforts of DEIS , an NGO ,began way back in 1992 through programs on Radio/TV. Paper brought forth the Employment/Unemployment scenario in India and the dynamics of the current Educational systems. The paper then dwelt on the typical Indian ethos of holistic human development , HHD. It briefly touched upon DEIS's international research and help got from Durham Business School, UK; Enterprise NZ trust and others. Analysis of Brain Functions as the basis of designing a curriculum was also presented . The role of Government bodies like the Small Industries Development Bank of India, Department of Science & Technology, DST to support and encourage new experiments in pedagogy of EE were highlighted . Use of ICT for initial awareness creation about Entrepreneurship Education was also expounded.
The future potential work with MERC, Pune and Bharti Learning Delhi was briefly mentioned.

On 9th Nov evening , I was one of the select 32 delegates invited to attend the very exclusive dinner of Awardees of Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion (QAEP). This could be equivalent of our Arjuna Awards in sports or Padmashris .

So it was a very distinguished gathering. I felt honoured to be invited as perhaps the only outsider.
Interestingly after dinner, the QAEP awardees took up a serious discussion on a job given to them by Lord Young, an MP of British Parliament, I presume . Apparently Lord Young is incharge of preparing a bill , or what they may have, for the Parliament for a UK 1.5 bn GBP ( about Rs.10,500 Crores) for small business promotion and development in UK .He has to present it in Feb 2011.

I could not contribute to the discussions as I had no idea about UK development infrastructure, but I got a ring-side view of how such important papers are prepared. While the participants were all very forthright and even self critical of how the money was to spent, which organisations to be involved, which Missions to be undertaken, I was impressed by the fact that they all had a cool confidence that the entire amount will reach the last beneficiary. Coming from a good number of QAEP awardees this was credible.

The dinner understandably ended with a toast to the QUEEN Elizabeth of England.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS OF BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION OF UDYOG SADHANA-NAVI VATCHAL, USNV

• 1. INTRODUCTION TO UDYOG SADHANA-NAVI VATCHAL, USNV
  Development Education (International) Society, DEIS Pune, India (under its Enterprise Education projects supported by CORDAID, DST, SIDBI,BOM, MSETI, MCED, MHRD and others) was pleased to announce “BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION” for audience and students of UDYOG SADHANA-NAVI VATCHAL , a series of 26 weekly episodes TV programmes running since 20th July 2008 on DD Sahyadri Channel, every Sunday, 10:00 am.

  By now 24 episodes out of 26 are completed. Some 45 students from 10 schools in Maharashtra participated in the programme production in the studios. Most of the lessons were taught by Dr. Pradeep Wagh and 26 experts shared their wisdom and experience through the programmes.

  2. AUDIENCE RESPONSE
  The programmes are linked to an interactive web-portal
  www.enterprise-education.in
  where the audience can solve the worksheets of the lessons taught during the telecast.
  DEIS is happy to announce that some 350+ youth from all over Maharashtra registered on the web-portal and followed the programmes.
  Apart from this some 250+ audience members , largely from rural areas called up DEIS on telephone and expressed their motivation to seek self-entrepreneurship as an alternative career.

  3. ANNOUNCEMENT OF BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION, BPC
  The programme has now reached an important phase. Most of the basic lessons of Enterprise Education have been completed. An important announcement was made through newspapers and TV from mid Nov 2008. This announcement was of a Business Plan Competition for viewers and students at large. DEIS thanks media for their support in making the announcements. .

  4. BPC Response
  Some 35 plans were received in response. The completed plans were submitted online on the programme website or sent by email or posted. The plans are characterized by a a sense of commitment, clarity of ideas, and a basic understanding of the components as gathered by the audience from the USNV TV programmes viz. :
  1. What is the IDEA behind your product/ service?
  2. Marketing Plan
  3. Design Plan
  4. Production Plan
  5. Finance Plan
  6. Other points
  Responses are spread from the moderately educated young in rural areas to the highly educated urbane youth, all largely in the age group of 18 yrs to 35 yrs. The programme has bridged the gap of knowledge about Enterprise at all levels of the society irrespective of their geographic location, education or age. Interestingly more respondents are females than males, an indication that there is a rising consciousness among womenfolk to take enterprising initiatives.

  5. The winners
  DEIS is now pleased to announce that six winners have been chosen.

  Each of the winners is being given a CERTIFICATE and a Rs. 1500/- scholarship to attend an Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) of their choice at Maharashtra Center for Entrepreneurship Development, MCED in their own District.

  These scholarships are sponsored by Compulink, an innovative software product company headquartered in Pune.

  The winners have presented their plans on TV camera and their presentations will be telecast on Sunday 18 January 2009, 10 am on DD Sahyadri in the next episode of UDYOG SADHANA-NAVI VATCHAL.

  
  6. CONCLUSION
  In conclusion this USNV and BPC has provided an interesting pointer that mass-media of TV/newspapers can serve a good developmental purpose of entrepreneurising the common society.

“National Conference on Technical Vocation Education, Training and Skills Development: A Roadmap for Empowerment”

Perceptions as a panel speaker of Dr. Pradeep Wagh, Secretary General, Development Education (International) Society, DEIS, Pune

• “National Conference on Technical Vocation Education, Training and Skills Development: A Roadmap for Empowerment” was held on 17th & 18th December 2008 in New Delhi by All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), MHRD.

  1. The opening remarks of Hon. Shri Arjun Singh ji "Skill development at the grass root level is key for India's progress. We have the infrastructure necessary, but we have to start making it work. This conference is an important milestone towards this goal" gave important thoughts to ponder on for Dr.Wagh and also perhaps to the 500 odd delegates comprising of Vice Chancellors of Technical Universities/Deemed Universities, Director of premier Technical Education institutes including IITs, NITs, IIMs, and persons from academia and industry and Secretaries dealing with Technical Education and Directors of Technical Education of the State Govts/UTs.

  2. Professor R. A. Yadav, Chairman, AICTE, introduced the conference aptly when he said "Technical Vocational Education & Training and Skills Development is one of the most crucial components of human resource development having the potential for adding value to products and services thereby improving the quality of life of the people. It has been realized that with the rapidly changing and increasingly sophisticated economies and technology, more needs to be done in the field of vocational education & training and skills development, to educate and train people for employment and entrepreneurship….”

  
  3. The technical sessions were enjoyable and gave valuable insights in the following six areas:

  3.1 The Present National & International Experiences (Existing Systems, Schemes, Models and Best Practices)

  3.2 The Present National & International Experiences (Existing Systems, Schemes, Models and Best Practices) Real Life Experience Sharing.

  3.3 Public & Private Initiatives and Partnerships

  3.4 Technical Vocational Education, Training and Skills Development Strategies

  3.5 Media Round Table

  3.6 Role of Higher & Technical Educational Institutions, AICTE, UGC & other Regulatory bodies.

  Dr.Pradeep Wagh felt very elated to be included in the technical session 3 viz. “Public and Private Initiatives and Partnerships” along with eminent speakers viz:

  - Shri A. K. Rath, Sec, School Education & Literacy Ministry of MHRD, GOI
  - Shri N. K. Sinha, Jt. Sec, MHRD, GOI
  - Dr. Xavier Alphonse S. J., Director ICRDCE & Member, UGC
  - Sri Ashok Singh, Vice President, INTUC & Member, Board of Governors, IIM, Lucknow
  - Prof. K. P. Murthy, Consultant, Bosch Bangalore.

  That DEIS, an NGO was given a place to express its views, speaks a lot about the openness of the Government Authorities to humble grass-root work of people.
  DEIS as you are aware has been working for the last two decades in the field of “Enterprise Education in Technical, Vocational Education and Training (EE in TVET)” which also formed the subject of paper presented.

  This work of DEIS has been done with international assistance from Netherlands, New Zealand, USA, Canada, UK, etc and with considerable public sector co-operation from Doordarshan, AIR, DST, PSSCIVE, MHRD, Maharashtra Education Board, etc. Dr.Wagh was pleased to present the details of this Public and Private Initiatives and Partnerships.

  Highlight of this DEIS initiative is that the entire work in the field of ENTERPRISE EDUCATION of DEIS is now accepted as a national resource by MHRD and is posted on their official web-portal:
  www.sakshat.ac.in --> Educational Resources --> Study Material --> Enterprise Education

  The material is also available on the comprehensive web portal
  www.enterprise-education.in

  Dr.Wagh was particularly satisfied when an exclusive group of delegates had a further discussion with him on the subject.

  The entire conference has served to give a new motivation and inspiration.
  DEIS shares the gigantic target set by the conference to work towards creating a
  500 million strong work force, skilled in technical, vocational education by year 2022.

  The most important question of genuine concern posed by Dr.Wagh to the conference was , “We may target to create a 500 million technically adept work force by year 2022, but have we thought of who will employ them? “

  Even if an average of 10 people are to be employed by one entrepreneur, we need some 50 million entrepreneurs by year 2022 to employee the entire technical work force i.e some 5 million new entrepreneurs need to be trained and created every year. This is a tall order since the education system in India is currently not geared for this thinking process itself, unlike in some developed countries like New Zealand ( www.enzt.co.nz) where Enterprise Education is started as early as 5 years of age in schools itself.

  As a part answer , DEIS offered its continuing initiatives and in the following areas:

  1. Technical and Vocational education through ICT
  2. Enterprise Education through TV media
  3. Enterprise Education through Web
  4. Related areas

  DEIS also offers its resource materials as follows:

  1. Enterprise Education Trainers Manual
  2. Enterprise Education Students Activity Book
  3. Interactive Business Planner (IBP) CD
  4. Enterprise Education Interactive CD
  5. Kalpavriksha CD – Business Opportunity Guidance CD
  6. IBP Manual
  7. Enterprise Education Presentation CD
  8. Udyojakta Vikas Malika , Enterprise Videos (32 volumes)
  9. Udyog Sadhana – Navi Vatchaal TV Programmes (26 episodes)

Felicitation of Brig. P. V. Gole (Retd.), AVSM, Chairman, DEIS, Pune:

Felicitation of Brig. P. V. Gole, (Retd), AVSM, Chairman, Development Education (International) Society, DEIS Pune was done at the auspicious hands of Dr. V. Z. Sali, a reputed educationist of Maharashtra on 14th June 2008 at the residence of Brig. Gole at a private ceremony organized by Dr. V.Z. Sali Students Researchers Felicitation Committee.

Brig. Gole, 85 yrs. has in the past been decorated with AVSM for meritorious services in the Territorial Army. Brig. Gole is also Director (Retd.), Air India.
Dr. Pradeep Wagh, Secretary General, DEIS welcomed the members present and introduced Dr. Sali to the august gathering.

Mr. S.P. Ranade, sr. trustee, DEIS introduced Brig. Gole’s sparkling career.
Brig Gole started the Development Education (International) Society (DEIS), Pune in 1987 with the vision “To see India emerging as a developed country, where every person would get an opportunity for education, entrepreneurial qualities development and productive economic activities”.

He spearheaded the launch of a series of weekly radio programmes titled “Udyog Sadhana” in Maharashtra in 1992 and in U. P. and M. P. in 1994.
He has provided leadership since about 1999 to research Enterprise Education for School Children, in his quest for Enterprise concepts and skills.
The research done by DEIS for Enterprise Education is now accepted as a national resource and is available to all people at large through the official “sakshat” website of the Ministry of HRD.

”It is his great contribution that he introduced this concept of Enterprise Education in the Secondary level of the Maharashtra Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education by working closely with the Board of studies .,” commented Dr.Sali while presenting a Citation of Honour.
Mrs. Vijayatai Gole , wife of Brig.Gole was also felicitated on this occasion by Mrs. Netra Wagh, sr. trustee ,DEIS. Prof. S.B.Gagare, Principal, B.Ed. College, Sangamner , in his capacity of President of the Feliciation Committee presented a memento to Brig.Gole on the occasion. Some 10 principals and officials of B.Ed. colleges from different parts of Maharashtra attended on behalf of the committee. About 30 friends and well-wishers had also gathered on the occasion, prominent among these being Sri Vasant Kanitkar, Ex-Chairman, Deccan Education Society.
Details of Enterprise Education are available on website: www.enterprise-education.in
“Enterprise Education” is also available as a unit of study in the book of “Personality Development” Std. 9th and 10th in Maharashtra.

L to R Dr. V.Z. Sali, Brig. P.V. Gole (Redt) AVSM, and Mrs. Vijaya Gole during the felicitation.

The details of the Citation are given on the >> Citation of Honor

WORLD PEACE CONGRESS 2008

Seminar on “The Entrepreneurial Spirit”:

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