ENTREPRENEUR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM  (EDP)

The mission of the program is to lead, give support to and educate entrepreneurs in designing, putting into practice and managing the businesses they want to establish and operate. The main purpose is to provide entrepreneurs with a sound infrastructure, help them to write their business plans to build successful, productive enterprises; give them the required training; carry out project practices, and establish continuous support mechanisms. This program also helps to increase the awareness of entrepreneurship; fostering the entrepreneurship culture; encouraging participation of entrepreneurs in the innovation process.

The EDP is carried out by an experienced team composed of experienced instructors, tutors for leading the project groupwork and consultants. During EDP, the entrepreneurs will not only be corporating with each other, but also with experienced speakers, investors, venture capitalists, specialists and leaders of other support institutions in the Turkish business world. During the program, the guest entrepreneurs will share their own success stories, the difficulties they had to face and also their failures. EDP is composed of two major sections:

• Education (Classes) and Project Group Work
• Consultancy

   
In the first section, the attendees will participate in the courses. The training will start at 8.00 am and end at 18.00. In the evenings (20:00-24:00), the projects groupwork will be carried out under the supervision of the tutors. The groups are established by analyzing the content of the projects and the personalities of the individuals. The main objective of the project work is to provide hands-on learning of the business plan. First section will include 3 training weeks, 5 days per week (15 days in total). There will be a ten-day break between each training week. These breaks will provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to work on their projects and also to deal with their regular work / businesses.

In the second section, a total of 20 hours of consultancy is given during three months period of time for each selected attendee for their required needs or specialties. The selection of entrepreneurs attending the program is based on the evaluation and a short interview to be carried out at the end of the first section of the program. In this period, the individuals will be directed to the consultants in the network established by SU itself. By benefiting from this consultancy, they are able to create more realistic and sound business plans.

At the end, the entrepreneurs will make their presentations to an evaluation committee composed of people from the business world, consultants and the project leaders. Certificates are given to the successful participants of entrepreneurship program.

EDP was launched in  2003 for the first time. 29 entrepreneurs graduated in 2003. Four of these graduates started their own bussiness and four of them  improved their bussinesses. EDP was repeated twice in 2005. 57 entrepreneurs graduated: Two of them already started their own bussiness

Click here to visit website of Entrepreneur Devolopment Program