REQUESTED FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST IFC BUSINESS EDGE franchise SME MANAGEMENT TRAINING SOLUTION
The International Finance Corporation, through the IFC Advisory Services in Africa, is seeking applications from suitably qualified Management/Training Consultancy firms, educational institutions, Business Associations, Public Institute and individual consultants to become franchises for the IFC Business Edge (BE) SME training solution.
PROJECT BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION
BE is an IFC flagship suite of management training products and services, specially designed for owners and managers of small & medium enterprises (SMEs). BE developed and rolled out in Vietnam in 2001, where it was very successful and has been deployed in china. Middle East & Northern Africa, Latina America, and introduced in Nigeria since 2009. Business Edge includes 51 management topics/modules covering the broad topic areas of Marketing, Human Resources, Production & Operations, Finance & Accounting, Tourism and Personal Productivity Skills. IFC uses local consulting and training firms, under a franchise arrangement, to roll out BE to the final SME beneficiaries. Benefits of the franchise include access to:
First-rate international materials (trainer manuals, presentation studies and cases that can be easily customized for clients; www.nigerianbestforum.com
Training skills and tools for needs assessment, workshop planning & facilitation’s, and a robust monitoring & evaluation framework to assess the outputs, outcomes and impact of training to objectively measure the return on training investment (ROTI);
Opportunity to train and mentor SMEs allied to IFC clients;
Opportunity to learn from IFC’s global industry experience and network of practitioners
CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION
To qualify, interested firms will nominate trainers/consultants for a 5 day business Edge Training of Trainers (ToT) and post-training assessment workshop facilitated by accredited Master Trainers and planned for September 26 October 1, 2011 in Post Harcourt, Rivers State. Ideal trainers should possess a track record for SME consulting/training in any of the key functional specializations of:
Financial management & capital raising
Marketing, sales, customer service
Management & operations (including quality processes)
Human resources management & soft skills.
Firms, whose nominees excel – scoring at least 3.5 on a 5 scale – during the ToT, will be considered as possible IFC Business Edgefranchises. Preference will be given to trainers who possess at leas 10 years of industry and training experience. To participate in the ToT workshop, a participation fee of N65, 000 per individual applies, subsidized to cover workshop materials, refreshment and certificates
HOW TO APPLY
Interested firms/consultants should download a BE Business Plan Form from the “join our network” page of the Business Edge Website – www.businessedge-africa.com completed forms should be forwarded to IFC through the following email addresses: RNworka@ifc.org or Fiyawa@ifc.org on or before August 14th, 2011. All inquiries should be directed to Chijioke (+23412799408, Florence +23412799400)
