APIA (Pacnews) — Samoa Polytechnic is developing a distance education pilot program to form the basis for small business studies in the Pacific.
The program aims to prepare a small business instructional package that will teach budding entrepreneurs the mechanics of setting up a business and how to improve earnings.
The program is designed for students who are illiterate or barely literate including those who have had little time or opportunity to study, school leavers and small business owners. It will target individual communities and reflect their specific needs.
The project will make use of the practical experience of small business owners in various villages throughout Samoa.
“We are working with small business owners involved in retail, handicraft, fishing and agriculture. The course material will be tested in the villages and we will adapt the content of the course further to suit the needs expressed by potential business people,” said Samoa Polytechnic’s senior business lecturer Tertia Stunzner-Ryan.
She said that if the program is successful it would be extended to other Pacific island countries.
Stunzner-Ryan said the initial stage of the pilot project in Samoa involved working with local trainers and getting their feedback on the “Learning About Small Business” curriculum package that needed to be changed to suit Samoa’s purposes.
Commonwealth of Learning education specialist John Bartram said: “The work of the staff from the Samoa Polytechnic and the project’s implementation through the various NGOs in Samoa will provide valuable interventions for other small or developing countries as they try to meet the challenge of encouraging the development of entrepreneurial skills and self employment in their communities.
