Annex 1: The SIYB family of management training products

The SIYB Programme is structured into four separate training manuals, Generate Your Business (GYB), Start Your Business (SYB), Improve Your Business (IYB), and Expand Your Business (EYB). Together they form a system of interrelated packages developed to enable potential and existing small entrepreneurs to (i) start viable businesses, (ii) to increase the profitability of their existing enterprises and to (iii) to improve the working conditions of their employees in a way that enhances productivity. Responding to the progressive stages of business development, each training package is conceived to provide the right service at the right time: the generation of a business idea, the preparation of a business plan and the actual start-up, the early growth phase, and the expansion.

More specifically, each manual has the following expected outputs:

The SIYB Business Game is an integral part of the SIYB programme at all levels and a training tool that playfully provides practical skills in running a business. The game is a simulation that gives participants an opportunity to play based on a business model with potential risks and consequences as apparent in the real business world.

SIYB training delivery relies on a global system of capacity builders and a multiplier strategy. When starting the build up of a SIYB system, the ILO assesses the market for business services in a given country or region and establishes the demand for customized business management training solutions. It builds the capacity of local BDS organizations and other training service providers to implement SIYB training and related activities. The impact and sustainability of the SIYB programmes largely depends on these organizations and people involved in managing the programme.

The ILO also provides international training and certification of SIYB Master Trainers to whom the management of the national SIYB programme and the quality assurance system is handed over. Master Trainers are recruited from the pool of trainers, selecting the best and most strategically placed ones. They go through a training process and an examination and are then accredited by the ILO. The responsibility for the SIYB programme is handed over to these as individuals or as an

GYB Selection of a feasible business idea tailored on personal abilities and market's needs Awareness of what it means to be en entrepreneur and motivation for future career decisions

SYB Completion of a finacially viable business plan for personal use and external stakeholdes Start-up of the new business

IYB Development of a detailed business improvement action plan for a more effective use of my resources Increase of sales and profits, and reduction of costs though improved management processes

EYB Definition of a growth orientation for my business and elaboration of a strategic plan Multiplication of profits and enhanced productivity through better allocation of funds and investments

PREPARE START CONSOLIDATE GROW

association. Master Trainers become the technical “guardians” of SIYB in a given country or region. Using this strategy, the ILO creates a sustainable training and quality assurance system. The image on the right illustrates SIYB training and support interventions.

In the late 1980ies SIYB started off as a programme mainly directed at ILO constituents (labour ministries and employers organizations). It was later strongly influenced by the business development services debate and new delivery models started to emerge. The ILO stopped funding direct service delivery and moved from service provision to the facilitation of a training service market. The programme kept on growing. Partly due to this success, state institutions, including vocational training structures, started to express renewed interest in the programme. Nowadays SIYB is a programme that puts a strong emphasis on market dynamics and is used both by public as well as private actors. In all countries it relies on the technical structure of Trainers and Master Trainers to sustain the programme and its quality.

Currently there is a relatively large number of ILO projects (40-50) working with SIYB as a tool, but the last “SIYB only” project closed in late 2007 in China. SIYB is now used by national actors and as a tool in larger integrated ILO technical cooperation programmes. Resources for further developing SIYB in these programmes are limited. Nonetheless, as the demand for the tool is continuously high both from public1 as well as private2 institutions, the ILO will continue to update and enhance the material and the SIYB system.

1 e.g. Ministries of Labour in China, India, Lesotho, Perú. Vocational Training Institutions in Vietnam, Guatemala, Dominican Republic2 e.g. Employers organisations in Mongolia, Nigeria, India, Honduras and private consultancy firms in a wide range of countries