Enterprise and Economic Development

Welcome to Module 11 Promoting Enterprise and Economic Development.

The first unit of this module focuses on the nature of current economic development and its relationship to enterprise activity. Other units include practical guidelines and exercises to develop enterprise skills. Unit 5 takes the form of a training programme that you will be able to deliver to enterprising youth in your community.

Enterprise and small business seem to be entering a new phase of development. The speed of global economic change, which has been leaving some countries and some social groups seemingly high and dry, has forced everybody concerned with the development of poor and relatively poor people to look towards new kinds of economic solutions to old economic problems: a more complex interaction with funding sources and better understanding of the nature of market
forces. New projects that encourage small and micro business are well supported by international funding and development agencies, including CYP. The articulation of small business with the full range of economic infrastructure is becoming better understood and managed, though there is still a long way to go, and large numbers of small enterprises still fail because the needed supports for success are not part of the economic development framework.

The purpose of this module is to explore some of the development possibilities of the links between youth work and contemporary economic change. We will describe the skills needed to promote selfemployment among young women and young men, including the principles of setting up micro-enterprises. We will explore how aspects of informal education can help young people to develop enterprise skills and undertake enterprise projects.