The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) has called on incubation managers from both private and publicly funded incubators to take part in the Governance and Management Development Programme (IGMDP).
The IGMDP seeks to improve skills to effectively manage and ensure good governance at the incubators. The programme also upskills incubation managers.
“The course modules include the business incubation ecosystem; governance; marketing and stakeholder management; human resource and operations management; financial management; innovation and technology transfer; incubator management simulation; and a business model design research project,” Seda said in a statement.
The next group intake for the 2019 calendar year will open from 1 August 2018 and close on 1 September 2018.
“Building an effective incubation ecosystem is vital to the growth and development of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) and ultimately economic growth in the country,” Seda said.
CEO of Seda Mandisa Tshikwatamba said business incubators are important in developing and promoting growth of small enterprises.
“In the South African context, they also drive the transformation agenda and promote economic inclusion to undo the legacy of our past. Their management and operation therefore needs competent individuals capable of developing start-ups into scalable and sustainable enterprises,” Tshikwatamba said.
The IGMDP was developed through a partnership between Seda, the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) and Enterprises University of Pretoria (Enterprises UP).
Seda was tasked to be the programme manager and the implementing partner.
“Due to the rapid growth in the number of incubators, there was a need to pay attention to management and governance of these centres,” Seda said. – SAnews.gov.za
