EDI makes entrepreneurship boom in Iran

AHMEDABAD: Out of 5,000-odd students who were taught entrepreneurship in the last two years, over a 1,000 have launched their own economic ventures in the Kermanshah Province in Iran which was almost completely destroyed in the eight-year long war with Iraq in 1980s.
Kermanshah's is the most recent success story amongst the 32 provinces of Iran from where the students were trained in enterprise by Ahmedabad-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) and have become successful entrepreneurs.In fact, entrepreneurship is the new wave amongst students in Iran thanks to EDI.
"Two years back there was no concept of entrepreneurship through a planned training program in Iran. Unemployment was the biggest issue with a big number of youth not being able to find a source of livelihood through jobs. It was then that the government of Iran invited EDI to introduce and mobilize entrepreneurship and self employment amongst the students in their country," said faculty of EDI S B Sareen who is coordinator the institute's project with Iran project called 'Capacity Building for Promoting Entrepreneurship in Iran'.
After an initial research in Iran, Director of EDI Dinesh Awasthi, faculty members Sunil Shukla, DM Parikh, Umesh Menon and Sareen taught entrepreneurship development to selected trainers (teachers) of the 2000 training schools spread across Iran under the Technical and Vocational Training Organisation (TVTO) of Iran. Through three weeks training modules conducted in batches, EDI has taught 120 teachers of the targeted 500 till now.
Sareen said, "The project is achieving success and gaining recognition in Iran. After the initial success we are starting the second phase of the project which is to sensitize the support system consisting the policy makers, financial banks, ministry of industry and commerce and other related departments. The idea is to create an entrepreneurial society."
EDI will also work towards cluster development and organize training programme for those who are already in business on how to improve their ventures in Iran. "As most of their requirements are imported from other countries in Iran, entrepreneurship has a high potential in Iran. A right direction and support is just what they need," said Sareen.