How to teach a microbusiness workshop in the Philippines?

July 26, 2008 3:35 PM

What are some good resources on teaching micro business in developing countries?

I've been invited by the charity that I volunteer for to help facilitate a leadership retreat for high schoolers in provincial areas of the Philippines. Being a recent business school grad - I'd like to come up with a 2-3 hr workshop on basic business skills thats fun and engaging but have no place to start. Most of these children will go on to become farmers so anything in the agricultural field will be helpful too. Does anyone have any resources or references on putting together a curriculum of this kind?

I'd also like to hear from any peacecorp workers out there that are helping out with entrepreneurship too!

posted by cusr0002 to education (2 answers total)

A hundred years ago, before agribusiness, a much larger percentage of the people in the U.S. than today were farmers and that was the heyday of professional organizations for farmers such as the Grange and education organizations like 4-H. Maybe those sort of organizations are a good place to start?

Here's the National Directory of 4-H Materials, a web site of 4-H curricula and educational materials.

But I was even thinking it might be worth digging around in Google Books and libraries to see what materials of that sort would have been produced and used early in the last century.
posted by XMLicious at 4:08 PM on July 26, 2008

I'm a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and though my field wasn't business I did spend a lot of time talking about making money.

In my experience, what people needed to know were the steps to setting up a small business. Where I was (Jamaica) opening a bank account was a three day process with about seventy five signatures involved. Teaching people to navigate that system was probably one of the best things I accomplished. I don't know that the Philippines are equally ridiculous about banking, but my guess is they do have something similarly ludicrous hidden away in their system. Peace Corps Volunteers and charity workers are a great resource, and usually have access to email.
posted by aint broke at 6:22 PM on July 26, 2008