Small to Medium Enterprises Learn from Wake Forest
Reposted from La Prensa | by Wendy Alvarez Hidalgo
(translated from Spanish)
A year ago Charles Ulmos, a young entrepreneur, started with three other friends a construction company and technology. Knew little about accounting issues, because the four are engineers. But that barrier and was overcome, because Ulmos concluded on Friday a crash course in financial dealings and future marketing taught by masters from the University of Wake Forest, North Carolina, USA.
"I have strengthened my knowledge and is good to learn from these guys who have a vision of entrepreneur of the first world," says Ulmos.
And is that for five years at Wake Forest University has a campus in Nicaragua, located in Las Cumbres, where every summer welcomes students of this university to develop training programs for SMEs.
Ajay Patel, director of the committee in charge of the Wake Forest University, says that for several years been working on a research on the development of micro, small and medium enterprises in Nicaragua by students at American University. The idea, according to Patel, is to scrutinize what factors affect the fact that SMEs stagnate in their development or not bounce in the markets.
The research results will be provided to the Government and aid agencies working in this business area. "That information we can use us as a university to develop programs of training," he says.
Patel says that so far have been detected among the serious problems in financing SMEs, access to market infrastructure.
Wake Forest chose Nicaragua as the poorest country in the region where, according to Patel, there are many challenges and opportunities to overcome in the future.
American students, who assume half the cost of your stay in Nicaragua, in addition to teaching seminars on campus, traveling within the country or work part time with local organizations.
Medical students, for example, travel for a week to provide free care communities and "trying to develop best practices for people to reduce the incidence of diseases."
Wake Forest, which is among the top 25 U.S. universities, has similar offices in London, Vienna and Venice.