Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP)

The Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP), Gain vital skills & training to successfully start, manage, and grow your own business venture. Unlock your potential today.

Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP)

An Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) is a structured initiative designed to strengthen an individual’s entrepreneurial motivation and equip them with the necessary skills and capabilities to effectively assume their entrepreneurial role. Its core objective is to enhance a person’s understanding of motives, motivation patterns, their impact on behavior, and overall entrepreneurial values. More to know Rural Entrepreneurship!

Core Elements and Focus of EDP

While various programs offer information on new business ideas, venture setup, project report preparation, and finance sources, EDP goes beyond this. It is primarily concerned with developing, motivating entrepreneurial talent, and understanding the impact of motivation on behavior.

A well-designed EDP is envisioned with a three-tiered approach:

1. Motivation and Trait Development: Developing achievement motivation and sharpening entrepreneurial traits and behavior.
2. Guidance and Support: Providing guidance on industrial opportunities, incentives, facilities, rules, and regulations.
3. Capability Building: Developing managerial and operational capabilities.

Key Objectives of EDP

Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) objectives are typically categorized into short-term and long-term goals:

1. Short-Term Objectives

These are goals to be achieved immediately after the program’s completion:

• Mentally preparing an individual for an entrepreneurial venture.
• Making the person competent to assess the environment within the existing regulatory framework.
• Helping the participant to fix entrepreneurship as a general life goal.

2. Long-Term Objectives

The ultimate aim is to equip participants with all the necessary skills for establishing and smoothly running a business venture, leading to the launch of their own unit. Long-term goals include:

• Enlarging the supply of entrepreneurs for rapid industrial development.
• Developing the small and medium-scale sector.
• Industrializing rural and backward regions.
• Providing gainful employment to educated youth.
• Diversifying the sources of entrepreneurship.
• Improving the performance of small industries by developing managerial skills.

Importance and Role of EDP

Entrepreneurs are vital agents of economic growth, creating wealth, generating employment, and raising the standard of living. Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) is an effective tool for cultivating these entrepreneurs, thereby accelerating socio-economic development.

Importance (Benefits):

1. Economic Growth: Acts as a tool for industrialization and a path to economic growth.
2. Balanced Regional Development: Facilitates the dispersal of economic activities to different regions.
3. Poverty and Unemployment Alleviation: Provides opportunities for self-employment.
4. Optimum Resource Use: Ensures the best use of natural, financial, and human resources.
5. Successful Launching of Units: Develops the motivation, competence, and skills for successful enterprise management.
6. Empowering New Entrepreneurs: Creates a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Role:

1. Eliminates Poverty and Unemployment: Helps unemployed individuals opt for self-employment.
2. Balanced Regional Development: Fosters industrialization in remote areas, reducing the concentration of economic power.
3. Prevents Industrial Slums: Encourages decentralization of industries away from congested urban centers.
4. Harnessing Local Resources: Trains entrepreneurs to make proper use of locally available resources.
5. Defuses Social Tension: Diverts youth talent towards self-employment careers.
6. Capital Formation: Mobilizes idle savings by encouraging the setting up of new ventures.
7. Economic Independence: Develops substitutes for imported goods and promotes exports.
8. Improvement in Per Capita Income: Leads to more output, employment, and wealth generation.
9. Facilitating Overall Development: Entrepreneurs act as catalytic agents, setting a motivating example for others.

Phases of EDP

A typical EDP is structured into three distinct phases:

1. Pre-Training Phase: All preparatory activities before the training launch. This includes selection of entrepreneurs, infrastructure arrangements, selection of guest faculty, publicity, and formation of a selection committee.
2. Training Phase: The execution of the training program. Its primary goal is to develop motivation and skill (competency) among potential entrepreneurs, imparting both theoretical and practical knowledge.
3. Follow-up Phase (Post-Training): The review and support phase. It involves reviewing the pre-training and training phases and providing post-training support to help participants establish their projects, thus evaluating the program’s cost-effectiveness and success rate (number of participants who become entrepreneurs).

Features of a Good EDP

The basic features of a successful EDP have evolved over time:

• Careful identification and selection of entrepreneurs.
• Developing the entrepreneurial capabilities of the trainee.
• Equipping the trainee with basic managerial understanding and strategies.
• Ensuring a viable industrial project for each potential entrepreneur.
• Helping to secure necessary financial, infrastructural, and related assistance.
• Training cost is highly subsidized, with a token fee and a commitment deposit.

Major Problems and Operational Challenges of EDP

Despite its importance, Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) face several challenges:

Major Problems:

• Non-Availability of Competent Faculty: Difficulty in finding prepared faculty, especially in smaller towns and backward areas.
• Overestimation of Trainees: Overestimating the aptitude and capabilities of youth, leading to insufficient training.
• Duration of EDPs: The typical 4-6 week duration is too short to fully instill essential managerial skills.
• Lack of National Policy: Absence of a clear, comprehensive national policy on entrepreneurship.
• Non-Availability of Infrastructural Facilities: Lack of proper classrooms, speakers, boarding, and lodging, especially in rural areas.
• Improper Methodology: Non-standardized course content and unclear goals among conducting agencies.
• Mode of Selection: Non-uniform selection procedures, often favoring those with pre-existing project ideas.
• Poor Response of Financial Institutions: Banks’ reluctance to provide collateral-free loans to new, risky ventures.

Operational Problems:

• Inherent inability or inconsistent program design.
• Diverse opinions and perpetual ambiguity in execution.
• Lack of proper strategy and clear-cut objectives.
• Low institutional commitment and lack of clarity in approach.
• Absence of local support, creativity, and commitment.
• Non-availability of necessary inputs.
• Insufficient follow-up and absence of research facilities.
• Ill-planned training methodology.

Role of Government and Institutions in EDP

The government plays a crucial role in supporting entrepreneurship and SMEs, which are considered the engine of economic development.

Role of Government:

1. Training: Provides basic and technical training through government and state-level institutions (e.g., SIDO, NIESBUD, NSIC).
2. Marketing Assistance: Specialized agencies like NSIC provide marketing assistance, including single-point registration for government purchases.
3. Promotional Schemes: Implements policies, provides developed land/sheds, and schemes for quality upgradation (e.g., reimbursement for ISO 9000 certification).
4. Concession on Excise Duty: Offers exemptions and concessional rates on Excise Duty for MSME units.
5. Credit Facility: Ensures priority sector lending, establishes SIDBI as the apex financing institution, and provides credit guarantees for collateral-free loans up to a certain limit.

Institutions Conducting EDPs:

These institutions operate at national and state levels to evolve training materials, train trainers, offer consultancy, and facilitate the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

National Level Institutes:

• Management Development Institute (MDI)
• Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII)
• Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO)
• Small Industries Services Institute (SISI)
• National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD)
• National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC)
• National Institute of Small Industries Extension Training (NISIET)
• Risk Capital and Technological Finance Corporation Limited (RCTEC)
• Other institutions: IDBI, IFCI, ICICI, SIDBI, NABARD.

State Level Institutions:

• District Industries Centre (DIC)
• State Financial Corporations (SFCs)
• Small Industries Services Institute (SISI)
• Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation (KSIIDC)
• Other institutions: Technical Consultancy Organisations (TCOs).