Entrepreneurship Development Programme
The 'Entrepreneurship Development Programme' was a series of 3-day trainings in entrepreneurship, market research, and business development for craftspeople across India. It was piloted in 2014 by Dastkar- A Society for Crafts and Craftspeople.
Role: Learning Designer, Training Co-ordinator, Co-facilitator
Lead Organisations: Dastkar- A Society for Crafts & Craftspeople, New Delhi, India
Learners: Craftspeople from across India
Sector: Business Development, Culture
Project Report: EDP Session 2 Report (June 2014)
The Brief
Traditionally, in the handicrafts and handlooms sector of India, the maker or craftsperson was directly linked to their patrons, suppliers and market. With the fragmentation of the value chain over the centuries, most craftspeople in India have disconnected from their markets, and lopsided economic and social development has not allowed them to grow with the constantly changing aesthetics, needs and demands of the contemporary customer.
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Dastkar- A Society for Crafts & Craftspeople, has been working for more than 40 years to help traditional Indian craftspeople develop their family businesses into globally competitive brands. There was a resounding demand from the artisans to attend trainings or courses in business development, but as no one offered flexible training programmes for craftspeople at the time, I started designing a bespoke Entrepreneurship Development Training programme for Indian craftspeople in 2014.
My Design Process
As the Research and Artisan Development Coordinator with Dastkar, I had developed an excellent rapport with hundreds of craftspeople from across India. Upon conceptualising the Entrepreneurship Trainings, I conducted ethnographic research with the craftspeople who travelled to New Delhi to participate in our monthly craft Bazaars. I discovered that craftspeople of all ages, running ancestral or new Medium and Small Scale craft enterprises, had similar needs that included understanding and innovating in the urban Indian market better, learning how to manage apprentices and their teams, managing financial and other resources effectively, and learning how to leverage their craft skills and legacy to become more adaptable and future-ready.
I then collaborated with an expert trainer from the Delhi School of Social Work to co-create the structure and learning journey of the trainings that ran through the year. Each training was 3-5 days long, with 30-35 representatives of craft businesses and communities being invited for each training.
I coordinated all the trainings, ensuring the participating craftspeople had all their resource and logistical needs taken care of. I also co-facilitated certain sessions, especially introducing the participants to using social media as a tool to leverage their businesses, and bringing design entrepreneurs to share their learnings from establishing and running creative enterprises.
I recorded our design process and learnings and outcomes of one of our trainings in this report.
Outcome
The Entrepreneurship Development Workshop was facilitated in 2014 with 100 craftspeople from across India. Through games and hands-on activities, facilitated dialogue between craftspeople, design and business professionals, and sessions on management and new business techniques, the workshop series equipped traditional makers with the skills, mindset, and tools to establish, build, and sustain successful craft businesses.
Impact
Through the 3 trainings facilitated in January, June, and September 2014, we directly trained 100 leaders of craft enterprises and representatives of craft communities, and indirectly impacted more than 3000 beneficiaries!
As we were able to directly follow-up with the participants when they came to the monthly craft Bazaars in Delhi, I facilitated a survey after 3 months and found that 60% of the artisans had increased their sales by 50% just by managing resources and talking to customers about their craft and products better, and that 90% of the participants had been inspired by the training to form new connections and collaboration with other design and business experts to improve their enterprise.
Participants work together to collate their understanding of the importance of learning in an entrepreneur's life.
Notes from a participant's notebook during the training.