Trust helps disadvantaged youth turn entrepreneurs

Bharat Yuva Shakti Trust, an India Inc initiative, plans to build an army of 30,000 mentors to train aspiring businessmen.

Target: 90,000 entrepreneurs. Deadline: 2012. This is what the Bharat Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), an entrepreneur development outfit of India Inc, plans for the economically disadvantaged youth.

The objective is to be achieved through a massive mentorship programme for which the trust is building an army of 30,000 mentors "" the guides who would help the aspiring entrepreneurs build their business.

"In the next five years, we will build a nationwide pool of 30,000 trained and accredited mentors. This is keeping in view the demand from various organisations, including vocational institutions, SMEs, MFIs and banks," said Lakshmi V Venkatesan, founding trustee and executive vice-president, BYST.

"The BYST, supported by the Confederation of Indian Industry, hopes that these mentors will train around 100,000 entrepreneurs, who in turn would create jobs for about 450,000 people. The process can also lead to a generation of wealth of over Rs 3,000 crore at the grassroots," she said.

To achieve the target, the BYST will carry out its programme under three heads "" developing mentor chapters, imparting professional training to the enrolled mentors, and providing mentors with an international accreditation.

Mentor chapters "" a group of geographically-based business mentors "" would be developed on the lines of Rotary / Lion Clubs with the objective to develop individuals as competent mentors.

"Any graduate with some prior experience in business (manufacturing, services etc) can be a mentor," the trust said.

The mentor chapters would be developed at three levels "" national, regional and local. A local chapter will consist of a chair, vice-chair, a panel of counsellors, technical evaluators, mentor advisory panel, entrepreneur selection panel and mentors. Presentations on financial management, entrepreneurship development etc would be made by members from respective fields.

The first chapter was launched in Chennai in December, 2006 and in Pune as a pilot project in January 2007. "The membership of the Pune mentor chapter increased from 50 to over 100 in the past few months, leading to the creation of six more chapters in Pune in August. Chennai has four chapters and a drive is underway to start more chapters," Venkatesan said.

Under the training module component, the BYST provides practical training of 10 hours in a year to the mentors. A six-hour (basic version) course is available online and includes functions to generate reports and online collaborative tools like discussion boards.

"The course acquaints the learner to identify a business opportunity, communicate effectively with peers, lead by example, take risks, manage multiple tasks, and compete and win. The course content also sensitises the learner with issues related to gender, religion, social status and enables them to factor these in their daily interactions," she explained.

The mentoring programme of the BYST was being accredited by the UK's largest vocational awarding body, City and Guilds (C&G), she added.

Venkatesan said: "The response to the mentor training programme has been phenomenal, with over 200 mentors across six regions finishing the course and practicals in just five months. We have received numerous inquiries from national and international institutions."

Though a new concept in India, mentoring has been a popular choice in the US and UK for the last 30-40 years.

"The BYST developed the concept of business mentoring in India in 1992 and now its youth mentoring and entrepreneurship development programme is one of its kind in the country," Venkatesan said.

"Our surveys indicate that mentoring benefits the entrepreneurs as well as the mentors. It provides an opportunity for mentors and entrepreneurs to build a network, both nationally and globally," she said.

The trust has also launched the BYST Growth Fund, under which it plans to provide further assistance to about 5-10 per cent of the 1,320 entrepreneurs it has already trained.

"The fund, with a corpus of about $5 million collected from corporates and institutions like the International Finance Corporation, would deliver the first loan by the year-end," Venkatesan said.