Curriculum & Training

EVI training materials focus on fostering creativity, entrepreneurial thinking, negotiation and compromise, business ethics, and socially responsible risk-taking. Learning occurs through participating in a process that allows participants to formulate questions, start experiencing solutions, reflect on lessons learned, and apply lessons through simulations. This learning process invites a range of learning styles and is highly adaptable to different cultural and social contexts.

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EVI curricula are designed by linking desired learning points with training program modules. This process keeps the curriculum well-tailored to the intended training objectives and allows curriculum designers and trainers to recognize any potential learning gaps which can then be supplemented.

Here are what clients and partners are saying about EVI’s curricula and training:

• “Informative and focused,” creating “awareness about labor issues, employer, and employee perceptions.”
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• One client remarked that he was leaving the training “think[ing] strongly about sector map expansion” and pitching new opportunities to the youth in a way that was fun and exciting.
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• “I am very keen to integrate the simulation into the new value chain project because it creates the real life conditions for people to test new ways of behaving…and then learn from experiences so they can internalize the learning and change beliefs and behaviors.”

1. Marketplace Simulation: A role-playing simulation that provides enterprise development and management skills training while allowing participants to experience the business, personal, and social interactions of a growing marketplace.  Participants learn about the roles of different market actors and develop the ability to interact, build relationships, negotiate, and cooperate with different business partners and competitors.
2. Sustainable Business Ventures: A youth-oriented entrepreneurship training series with modules applicable to all ages.  Sustainable Business Ventures introduces business and entrepreneurship concepts through practical, fun activities and discussions and through a mini-marketplace simulations and work card activities.  Environmental considerations and growing opportunities in green business are integrated into each topic to allow participants to understand entrepreneurship in the context of our changing world.
3. AgriMarket Simulation: A simulation that demonstrates how to apply basic business planning and marketing principles to farming in a simple and accessible way. AgriMarket assists small-scale farmers to understand how to work with money and markets to build up a sustainable farm enterprise while balancing household food and nutrition needs.  Participants learn about the roles of different market actors and develop the ability to interact, build relationships, negotiate, and cooperate with different business partners and competitors.
4. AgriPlanner Simulation: A farming-as-a-business simulation that uses experiential, simulated role-plays during which participants interact to learn farming lessons.  These include  land-use and crop planning, managing seasonality for optimal outputs, allocating inputs and labor across multiple plots, understanding agricultural business cycles, and improving marketing and sales skills.
5. SavePower!: A learning system within the context of a fun simulation game that enables learners to experience and understand the structures and rules required to run their own village savings and loan group (also known as ASCAs, cajas rurales, or self-help groups).  Within a period of one or two days, learners have mastered the technical aspects, recognized and discussed the potential difficulties, and set up a range of rules and policies to simulate the establishment of their own savings group.
6. Financial Fitness: An engaging set of activities during which participants think through real financial challenges and strategies, and walk away with practical insights regarding personal financial management. By the end of this curriculum, participants understand how to be “financially fit” in the areas of beneficial spending habits, effective budgeting, efficient record-keeping, smart use of savings and credit services, and planning for the future.

To request a full brochure, or pricing information, contact lauren[at]eco-ventures.org.

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1. Rwanda: Marketplace Simulation and Financial Fitness Simulation adaptation and training to build enterprise development skills and financial literacy for youth
2. Liberia: AgriMarket Simulation training for secondary school teachers and community leaders to teach agricultural microenterprise to students and parents
3. Tanzania: Marketplace Simulation adaptation and training for managers of microfranchise beverage distribution enterprises in partnership with the Coca Cola Company
4. Zambia: Financial Fitness Simulation adaptation and training to improve personal financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills among youth delivered in partnership with ZANACO Bank.
5. Tanzania: SavePower! Simulation training to assist women microentrepreneurs in establishing savings groups
6. Timor-Leste: Marketplace Simulation adaptation and training to improve enterprise development and management skills for out-of-school youth
7. Haiti: Marketplace Simulation adaptation and training for youth engaged in environmental business start-up and management
8. Mexico: AgriPlanner Simulation training to foster entrepreneurship and improved farm management and planning for youth in agribusiness
9. Ecuador: Marketplace Simulation adaptation and training to improve microenterprise management skills of women in the agro-forestry sector
10. United States: Marketplace Simulation adaptation and training for retail cooperative managers to improve business management and supply chain relationships