A Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program For Low-Literate, Poor Individuals in Developing Economies
This program has been piloted and customized to urban and rural settings in Tamil Nadu, India. It is currently offered at regular intervals. A detailed manual is available upon request.
Our Approach
Localized Research Customized Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Education
Generic Business Education
Sources of Knowledge
• Experience with business education • Experience at the grass roots level • Research through numerous qualitative interviews of buyers and sellers • Not a one size (of business education) fits all (contexts) approach, • Combine business principles with indigenous research
Barriers Faced By Poor, LowLiterate Individuals
• Psychological (including self-confidence and awareness of rights) • Skill-related (skills as buyer and seller) • Financial We attempt to address the first two.
4-Tiered Model of Curriculum Development January to June 2003
• Broad Learning Goals • Specific Content/topics • Methods for conveying content to audience that is assumed to be unable to read or write • Instructional materials
Training Program
• Part 1 – Exchanges and Value Chains
– A simple introduction to marketplace economics – Pictorial tasks such as • prioritizing elements of a value chain where money is often
– Key concepts are
given highest importance at the beginning of training but the customer is given highest importance as the training proceeds • understanding the evolution of exchanges over time and the central importance of serving customer needs • exchange as the underpinning of marketplace economics • multiple exchanges along value chains • meeting of customer needs as a key driver of changes in the marketplace over time and of success of a business
Prioritizing Elements of a Value Chain
Task requires placing pictures in order of importance
Evolution of Exchanges – Part 1
Training Program
• Part 1 – Exchanges and Value Chains • Part 2 – Consumer Literacy
– Role play with vegetable and grocery shops covering pitfalls identified through basic research – Assessing value is a central topic
– – – – – – – – – Consumer-oriented business philosophy Evaluating business opportunities Conducting market research Understanding consumer decision-making Product Design Distribution Promotion Pricing Finance and Accounting
• Part 3 - Entrepreneurial Literacy
Value Chains and Distribution – Part 3
Assessment
• Training offered since June, 2003 • Assessment
– Follow-up in 3-6 months – 100% benefit through consumer literacy – 20-25% start businesses
• Training modified from 5-day program to 1-day consumer literacy and 2-day entrepreneurial literacy programs
Unique Aspects
– Conceptual focus to facilitate life-long learning – Emphasis on lived experience – Addresses an important need for generic life skills in the economic realm; underfocused compared to microfinancing and vocational literacy
Marketplace Literacy Project www.marketplaceliteracy.org