“I very much liked the business case-based teaching method. Business cases will be very useful for vocational college students, as real-life examples are much better in inspiring them to start their own business.” As business cases are based on real-life examples from Georgia, using them in entrepreneurship classes will make them much more amusing for students to attend.”

These are just a few of many comments from teachers who attended a two-day workshop named “Business Case-Based Teaching” held at ISET on the 11th and 12th of January. The workshop was held under the project “Strengthening Entrepreneurial Education and Training in Formal TVET System in Georgia” commissioned by Millennium Challenge Account Georgia (MCA) and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.

A total of 25 entrepreneurship teachers from vocational colleges across the country attended the workshop. The event was opened by Givi Kupatadze, the Senior Economist at the Crystal Microfinance Organization and the co-founder of the Estonian-Georgian Entrepreneurship Center. Givi gave a presentation about modern teaching methods in entrepreneurship, and introduced the ‘Business Model Canvas’, which he explained is a very useful tool for a nascent entrepreneur to design its business model with and test it before spending time on a fully-fledged business plan.

After this session, Tamta Maridashvili, a researcher at the ISET Education and Social Policy Research Center and the workshop’s organizer, explained how to develop a business case on the example of one which has already been developed. The subsequent task given to the teachers was to develop cases in the groups and present them during the workshop. The purpose of this session was that when the teachers return to their vocational colleges they can search for the cases of Georgian entrepreneurs and use them in illustrating theoretical topics taught in entrepreneurship.

During the next day of the workshop, the teachers had to practice lecturing using already-developed business cases. Four groups of teachers prepared power-point presentations and taught business cases to the auditorium. Their teaching was very interactive and the teachers themselves enjoyed the process. ISET hopes that with the help of the Ministry of Education and Science, business-case-based teaching will soon be included in its entrepreneurship modules.