Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Skill Development Programme Conducted by Micro Small Medium Enterprises Development Institute Kerala

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is considered as the harbinger of economic development. newlineEntrepreneurship can play a pivotal role in giving a boost to the economic newlinedevelopment to one of the largest populated countries like India. In India small newlineenterprises are now included in the category MSME, Micro Small and Medium newlineEnterprises. These small enterprises are equated with entrepreneurship and their newlinegrowth is considered as growth of entrepreneurship which in turn will facilitate newlineeconomic development. But most of the population are not having an entrepreneurial newlineculture or are not oriented towards it. Thus, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship newlineeducation have become a thrust area for the Government. newlineMSME-Development Institute, Kerala, a field outfit of Development Commissioner newline(MSME) under the Ministry of MSME, Government of India, started in 1956 is offering newlinemany entrepreneurial training courses. Among the courses the Entrepreneurial Skills newlineDevelopment Programme (ESDP) is a unique training programme aimed at weaker newlinesections of the society to provide them basic technical and business skills. MSME-DI, newlineKerala had been conducting the ESDP Training Programme from 2008 onwards for newlinethe weaker sections of the society, especially to SC, ST, minorities and women newlinebeneficiaries. Very few studies had been conducted so far to evaluate the effectiveness newlineof this programme. Since the Government of India and the State Government are newlinegiving thrust to entrepreneurial development and skill development especially of newlineweaker sections, such a study was found necessary to evaluate whether it was newlineeffective or not. newlineThe main objective of the study was to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of newlineEntrepreneurship Skill Development Programme conducted by MSME-DI, Kerala for newlinethe benefit of weaker sections of the society. It had been decided to conduct a survey using an Interview Schedule among people who had undergone ESDP Training in the newlinedistricts of Ernakulam and Thrissur in Kerala State.