GaryD I didn't ignore your post

[Assasin]

on Entrepreneurship and skill training yesterday. I support it wholeheartedly.

Bruce must jump on the JCC, PSOJ, JHTA and others to form a group like SCORE in the US where retired execs and others give advice to small business and provide training, mostly on a voleentary basis.

He could look at something like the Business Mentoring program in Georgia where big companies like Coke, Homedepot etc. mentor a smaller company and share resources and help them to grow. Another program is the Empire Zone program in NY where companies within the low growth areas in NY get a big break for investing and even government contracts.

I will talk to you later on this but I have to run for a while now.

[Mosiah]

Sounds great, sass, and I agree. I feel these are the sorts of things that can be "bully pulpitted" by the govt but private companies really need to make it work. And therein lies the problem(?). Are we willing to make this work.

And in a depressed economy like ours, it might be difficult to get small businesses off the ground. Chicken and egg affair, I guess. Will small businesses bring about a change in our economy, or does the economy have to change first before small businesses can thrive?

[Willi]

Sounds great, sass, and I agree. I feel these are the sorts of things that can be "bully pulpitted" by the govt but private companies really need to make it work. And therein lies the problem(?). Are we willing to make this work.

And in a depressed economy like ours, it might be difficult to get small businesses off the ground. Chicken and egg affair, I guess. Will small businesses bring about a change in our economy, or does the economy have to change first before small businesses can thrive?

Or both.

Did you read my post about lacking skills?

[Mosiah]

No. Can you post here again for me? Or direct me to it?

[Willi]

No. Can you post here again for me? Or direct me to it?

It was the Educaton and training post...

Education and training
GaryD brought up a good point about SME.

My take is that too many people are focussed on "paper mill" education (or lack of it), while the immediate problem to my mind is the lack of skills in a mass of youngsters that do not satisfy outstanding market demand.

While all education is important, is academic education focus the URGENT priority? Can that not be gradually improved, while the focus be placed on marketable skills to support SME initiatives?

These skills may take mere months (say a year) for student to gain competence, so could be paying dividends in fairly short times frames.

Of course, it should be all underpinned by market research to understand where the greatest needs lie.