×

Skill Development Training for Micro-Entrepreneurs

Overview

Women empowerment is one of the biggest tools for the effective development of any country. The concept of skill development of women encompasses their ability to boost their performance by improving the quality of work in which they are involved. The skill development project supports underprivileged women entrepreneurs in upscaling their business through intensive and systematic training led by professionally qualified and experienced trainers.

Both central and state governments have taken several measures to uplift women workers in the informal sector through various innovative programs. However, they have not achieved the desired level of success due to certain perennial issues. The need of the hour is to bring about an employment revolution along with a skill development revolution.

Through this project, PDS and ESAF aims to aid women micro- entrepreneurs by enhancing their skills through intensive and systematic training. Also, this project provides them sufficient market support. The project in total targets skill training and livelihood promotion for 5160 women micro- entrepreneurs through Online and Offline modes of training in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Chhattisgarh.

ESAF through this project aims to support women micro- entrepreneurs by providing them with skill enhancement training and market support. The skill development project supports underprivileged women entrepreneurs in upscaling their business through intensive and systematic training led by professionally qualified and experienced trainers. The project targets to provide skill training and livelihood promotion to 3,160 women micro entrepreneurs through Online and Offline modes.

Project Objectives

To improve the livelihood of women micro-entrepreneurs through skill enhancement.

To pilot women managed micro-system in three states in India.

Impacts

Following are the results from a sample survey conducted with 1,953 women:

86.2 % of women entrepreneurs responded that the training was beneficial to their business, while 13.8% responded that it was not beneficial.

86.1% of the women entrepreneurs acknowledged that they were able to enhance at least one of their abilities/ skills.

89.6% of the women entrepreneurs are running their own enterprises, 6.7% are running businesses with partnerships, and 3.6 % provide employment

Feedbacks from the participants were on the positive side. Many agreed that the training was helpful to them to improve their business.

A huge majority of women (98.4%) are planning to expand their businesses.

36.9% of women entrepreneurs are expecting handholding support in the future. 32.4% are expecting financial support, and 30.7 % are expecting both financial and training support.

A significant majority (98%) of the women entrepreneurs who attended the training are currently earning, and they have plans to upscale their business in future.

The women entrepreneurs who have a regular stream of income are planning to upskill their business in the future.

The training that makes her life beautiful

The story of Sajeera T. K.

Sajeera T. K., 36 years, runs a beauty and wellness clinic. Her family hails from Ammanappara, Kannur. Her family is made up of her husband and two children. Her children are pursuing their education and her husband is a gulf returnee.

A few years back she learned a beautician course from a private institute and joined a beauty parlour in Taliparamba. She had plans to open a shop of her own after learning the ropes of the trade. Once she gained sufficient experience, she started a parlour as planned, in Pazhayangadi. Her beauty parlour was registered under District Industrial Centre, and she was earning around Rs. 25,000 per month as profit. But the happiness did not last long, the 2020 lockdown shook her business to the core and she was forced to shut the shop. Her husband also lost his job around the same time

Sajeera did not lose hope amidst the crisis. She brought all the beauty equipment home and began operating from her house. Customers visited her house whenever they needed her services, she also offered doorstep services to her clients.

It was at this juncture that Sajeera heard about the beauty and wellness training and Entrepreneurship Development Training organised by ESAF at Kannur. She joined and successfully completed the training. This helped her in two ways. Through the training, she learned the latest techniques in beauty & wellness and also gained the confidence to restart her beauty parlour. She opened a beauty parlour cum tailoring centre at Talipparamba, near her home

She is a part of ESAF Sangam since 2018 and is thankful for ESAF’s timely support in developing her business. “ESAF’s training rejuvenated my skills and gave me the confidence to restart the parlour. Now I am planning to upscale my business,” she concluded gratefully.

Training for a better life

The story of Lalita Raguwanshi

Lalita Raguwanshi, 34 years old, is a member of Jaishree SHG in Betul, Madhya Pradesh. She began her entrepreneurial journey in 2017 by setting up a small grocery shop in her locality. By March 2020, she was able to develop her store with the support of ESAF. She was one of the beneficiaries of the online grocery sector training organised by PDS. Through the training, she learned how to handle customers professionally and figured out several methods to improve sales like introducing online payment for customers and offering small discounts to regular customers.

No wonder, her business sales and profit increased significantly after the training. Once she came to know about the Vyapar & Udhyog Kendra she applied for a higher loan. In March 2021, an Agricultural Loan of Rs. 25 lakh was sanctioned for the family. Today, her family is happy as they believe that their lives have changed for the better after Lalitha attended the training.

A visual walkthrough of the project