Stories

Young Experts are well prepared for their new YEP position, by the training programme, provided by YEP Programmes. And also during their secondment, Young Experts get plenty of tools to be able to work on their personal development by following YEP Online Courses to increase their skills or knowledge on specific themes.

An example of such an Online Course is the yearly course Business Development, which was developed in 2018, facilitated by trainers, and both YEP alumni, Susanne Roelofsen from MDF Training & Consultancy and Rogier Pennings from Stevin Technology Consultants. Susanne and Rogier always enjoy helping out new Young Experts with their business cases. Rogier: “Over the past years, I have been involved in different ideas, focused on starting new businesses. Out of the 9 serious projects I started, 2 actually became reality (and 7 did not; however, they were great learning opportunities). During these ‘journeys’, I have experienced a lot of do’s and don’ts, and I lookforward to share these in the Online Course.”

 

With the course, the trainers aim to bridge theory and practice, in order to help Young Experts make the most of their YEP experience. They strive to help them build and expand their business, and help them to answer questions such as:

• Who is your customer?
• What can you offer as a company or a person?
• How do you build a sales network, proposal and/or partnership?

According to René van der Velden of the YEP Programme Bureau: “Business Development is an important skill that allows the Young Experts to develop and grow their ideas, concepts and businesses. With a viable busines,s they are able to contribute to the SDGs through innovative business models and by reaching new (underrepresented) user groups.”

Just like former years, the course was very well received by the 20 participants earlier this year.

Quotes participants (from survey):

• “The material was excellent, understandable and applicable in real life (to our business cases)”
• “The course content and knowledge gained have been very relevant and applicable, starting from the building blocks for the business model canvas. It has really helped me to understand how market segmentation is targeted and achieved, and how to compete favourably in the competitive market”
• “The content covers areas of the business case that most of conventional business development courses don't cover, like financial feasibility and partnerships, proposals and sales”
• “The course is relevant almost in all projects and business backgrounds”