Everyone wants to follow ‘best practices’—why reinvent the wheel when someone else already has? And that seemingly goes double for policymakers looking to inject a bit of dynamism into sluggish economies around the world.

But how can you be sure a ‘best practice’ is really the best practice? Or even just a plain best practice?

During Global Entrepreneurship Week, the European Training Foundation is hosting a two day conference in Brussels to help answer that question. On November 15 & 16, practitioners and policymakers working on entrepreneurship and enterprise skills in transitional and developing economies are set to engage in a critical review of methodology and tools to improve confidence and exchange between training providers. The conference promises a set of recommendations for more systematic identification, quality assurance and dissemination of good practice in promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise skills.

ETF, based in Turin, Italy, is an agency of the European Union focused on helping more than 30 transitioning and developing economies.

The conference agenda centers on “road-tested” methodology and tools in three areas:

• Training for young people’s startups (up to 30 years of age);
• Training and mentoring for women entrepreneurs;
• Promoting skills for small enterprises embarking on international trade.

Representatives from the following economies are participating in the conference: Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Iceland; Montenegro; Serbia; Turkey; Kosovo; Algeria; Egypt; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Libya; Morocco; Occupied Palestinian Territory; Syria; Tunisia; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Belarus; Georgia; Moldova; Russia; Ukraine; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; and Uzbekistan.

It won’t be the first year that ETF has been actively involved in Global Entrepreneurship Week. Last year, ETF ran a conference on entrepreneurship education in Bosnia & Herzegovina that enjoyed the support of an array of federal agencies—the Ministry of Civil Affairs; the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economy; the Agency for Development of SMEs, Republica Srpska; the Federal Ministry of Economic Development, Entrepreneurship and Craft; the Agency for Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary Education; and the Employers Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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[Photo credit: lassi.kurkijarvi]

tags: European Training Foundation