Sets Graduation |28 November 2020

Presentation of certificates

130 entrepreneurial warriors graduate from first cohort

The first cohort of the Entrepreneurship Development Programme regrouping 130 participants graduated yesterday at the ICCS after completing a five-course programme.

The programme was initiated by the Seychelles Employee Transition Scheme (Sets) in August this year in partnership with The Guy Morel Institute (TGMI), Enterprise Seychelles Agency (Esa) and the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).

To recall, the ‘Entrepreneurship skilling intervention programme’ was specifically designed to sharpen the entrepreneurial skills of the local entrepreneurs and small business owners. The training is to target some 250 people who are already in business and will mainly focus on leadership and how to help the Seychellois move a step forward in their career path.

But with Covid-19, more people were interested in the programme. Shella Mohideen, the director of TGMI, announced that there were 407 enrolments and they issued 344 certificates of participation, 130 completed the programme and 14 participants did not meet the requirement for a certificate.

“It has been a very interesting journey. During the last few months I have been interacting with the participants, I can already see the change in the mindset of the participants. There are also some participants who have already started a journey and started their business. The entrepreneurial journey has started for many and for others I hope they continue. It is a journey and it is up to the new graduates to nurture it. Many participants could not do the five weeks programme and TGMI had to adapt the programme to the demand. We also got a lot of support from the department of Entrepreneurship and Industry.”

Ms Mohideen also expressed the wish of having an aftercare programme for the new entrepreneurs and she encourages the new graduates to turn barriers into opportunities.

The chief executive of Sets, Guy Morel, congratulated the participants for their enthusiasm and for completing the programme.

“We are setting the platform of what will become a rebalancing of the business community in Seychelles where we will see greater participation in creating the wealth of Seychelles. We talked a lot about the natural DNA that ethnic groups have in terms of entrepreneurship and business and how other ethnic groups may not necessarily at early age look at entrepreneurship as a way of life. We are seeing today a cohort of commandos/entrepreneurs who would be paving the way for the transformation of the business community in Seychelles. With this programme, Seychelles will transform itself as we move from a post Covid recovery to build the USD 1 billion economy,” noted Mr Morel.

Some participants shared their experiences and also noted that they already started other new businesses and from this programme they got a new perception of how to do business.

The graduation ceremony was also composed of role play and songs interpreted by the participants and guests.

Vidya Gappy

Photos: Louis Toussaint