Entrepreneurship Development Program EDP: Definition, Features, Objectives, Achievements

What is EDP in Entrepreneurship?

An entrepreneurial development program EDP may be defined as a program designed to help an individual strengthen his entrepreneurial motive and acquire the skills and capabilities necessary for playing his entrepreneurial role effectively. It is necessary to promote this understanding of motives and their impact on entrepreneurial values and behavior for this purpose.

The entrepreneurial development program is a systematic and organized development of a person to an entrepreneur refers to inculcating entrepreneurial skills into a common person, providing the needed knowledge, developing technical, financial, marketing, and managerial skills, and building an entrepreneurial attitude.

The concept of entrepreneurial development involves equipping a person with the required information and knowledge used for enterprise building and polishing his entrepreneurial skills.

These days, entrepreneurial development programs are treated as an important tool of industrialization and a solution to the unemployment problem in India. The overall aim of an entrepreneurial development program is to stimulate a person to adopt entrepreneurship as a career and to make him able to identify and exploit the opportunities successfully for new ventures.


Definition of EDP in Entrepreneurship

These are the following are the definitions of EDP in entrepreneurship:

Identifies intelligence, motivation, knowledge and opportunity as the prerequisites for entrepreneurial development.

Joseph E. Schempter

EDP is an attempt to develop person as entrepreneur through structural training. The main purpose of such entrepreneurial development programme is to widen the base of entrepreneurship by developing achievement motivation and entrepreneurial skills among the less privileged sections of society.

SIET Institute, Hyderabad

Features of EDP

Following are the some important features of EDP’s:

  1. Enhancing the motivation knowledge and skills of the potential entrepreneurs.
  2. Assisting them in the development of their own enterprise.
  3. Arousing and reforming the entrepreneurial behavior in their day-to-day activities.
  4. Join an EDP all your problems will be solved.
  5. EDP’s success is the sole responsibility of the trainer’s motivations.
  6. The higher the number better the EDP.
  7. Need-based common facilities center.

Objectives of EDP

The main objectives of EDP are as follows:

  1. To identify and train the potential entrepreneurs in the region.

  2. To develop necessary knowledge and skills among the participants in EDPs.

  3. To impart basic managerial knowledge and understanding.

  4. To provide post-training assistance.

  5. To develop and strengthen entrepreneurial quality and motivation.

  6. To analyze the environmental issues related to the proposed project. To help in selecting the right type of project and products.

  7. To formulate an effective and profitable project.

  8. To enlarge the supply of entrepreneurs for rapid industrial development.

  9. To develop small and medium enterprises sector which is necessary for employment generation and wider dispersal of industrial ownership.

  10. To industrialize rural and backward regions.

  11. To provide gainful self-employment to educated young men and women.

  12. To diversity the source of entrepreneurship.

  13. To know the pros and cons of being an entrepreneur.

  14. To provide knowledge and information about the source of help, incentives, and subsidies available from the government to set up the project.

  15. To impart information about the process, procedure, rules, and regulations for setting up a new unit.

Achievements of EDP

Entrepreneurship plays a very important role in the economic development of entrepreneurs as catalytic agents in the process of industrialization and economic growth. Joseph Schumpeter states that the rate of economic progress of a nation depends upon its rate of innovation which in turn depends up on the distribution of entrepreneurial talent in the population.

Technological progress alone cannot lead to economic development unless technological breakthroughs are put to economic use by entrepreneurs. It is the entrepreneur who organizes and puts to use capital, labor, and technology in the best possible manner for the setting up of his enterprise.

EDP enables entrepreneurs to initiate and sustain the process of economic development in the following ways:

  1. Creation of Employment Opportunities
  2. Capital Formation
  3. Balanced Regional Development
  4. Use of Local Resources
  5. Improvement in Per Capita Income
  6. Improvement in the Standard of Living
  7. Economic and Independence
  8. Preventing Industrial Slums
  9. Reducing Social Tension
  10. Facilitating Overall Development

Creation of Employment Opportunities

Unemployment is one of the most important problems confronting developing and undeveloped countries, EDPs enable prospective entrepreneurs the set up their own units, thus enabling them to get self-employment. With the setting up of more and more units by entrepreneurs, both on small and large scale, numerous job opportunities are created for the others.

Entrepreneurs in this way get an opportunity to lead an independent and honorable life and at the same time, they enable others to get employment. Several schemes like Nehru Rozgar Yojna, National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), etc. have been initiated by the Government of India in the direction.

The thrust of all these schemes is to eliminate poverty and generate gainful employment opportunities for the unemployed. Thus entrepreneurs can play an effective role in reducing the problem of unemployment.

Capital Formation

It is not possible to set up an enterprise without adequate funds. An entrepreneur as an organizer of factors of production employs his own as well as borrowed resources for the setting up of his enterprise. Entrepreneur mobilizes idle saving of the public and put them to productive use.

In this way, he helps in capital formation which is so essential for the industrial and economic development of a country. Various development banks like ICICI, IFCI, SFCs, and SIDCs take the initiative in promoting entrepreneurship through assistance to various agencies involved in EDP and by providing assistance to new entrepreneurs.

Balanced Regional Development

Small-scale units can be set up in industrially backward and remote areas with limited financial resources. Successful EDPs assist in accelerating the pace of industrialization in the backward areas and reduce the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few.

Entrepreneurs feel like taking advantage of the various concessions and subsidies offered by the state and central government. The success story of entrepreneurs set the right example for others to follow and this accelerates the pace of industrialization in the backward areas.

Use of Local Resources

In the absence of any initiative, local resources are likely to remain unutilized. Proper use of these resources can result in the progress or development of the area and that too at a lower cost.

Alert entrepreneurs seize the opportunity and exploit it in the best interests of the area and industry. Effective EDPs can help in the proper use of local resources by providing guidance, assistance, education, and training to prospective entrepreneurs.

Improvement in Per Capita Income

Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for opportunities. They explore and exploit the opportunities. Entrepreneurs take the lead in organizing various factors of production by putting them into productive use through the setting up of enterprise.

More enterprise will lead to more production, employment, and generation of wealth in the form of goods and services. It will result in an increase in the overall productivity and per capita income in the country. EDPs play a positive role in the setting of more units thus helping in the generation of more employment and income.

Improvement in the Standard of Living

Entrepreneurs by adopting the latest innovations help in the production of a wide variety of goods and services. By making efficient use of the resource, this starts producing more of better quality, and that too at lower costs.

This enable them to ensure easy availability of better quality product at lower prices to the consumer which result in the improvement in the standard of living of the people. EDPs provide the necessary support to entrepreneurs by educating them about the latest innovations and market trends.

Economic and Independence

Entrepreneurs enable a country to produce a wide variety of goods & services and that too at competitive prices. They develop substitutes for the goods being imported and thus prevent over-dependence on foreign countries and sometimes help in the saving of precious foreign exchange, which is so essential for meeting the developmental needs of the economic independence of the economy.

Preventing Industrial Slums

Industrially developed areas are faced with and problem of industrial slums, which result in the overburdening of civic amenities and adverse impact on the health of people. Dispersal of industries can help in the overcoming of this grave problem.

EDPs can help in preventing the spread of industrial slums by providing various incentives, subsidies, and infrastructural support to entrepreneurs for setting up their enterprises in industrially backward areas. This will also help in reducing pollution and overtaxing of civic am entities.

Reducing Social Tension

Unemployment amongst young and educated people is emerging as the major cause of social unrest. People are bound to feel frustrated if they fail to get gainful employment after completion of their education.

EDPs can help channel the talent of this section of society in the right direction by providing proper guidance, training, and assistance for setting up their enterprise resulting in the generation of self-employment and prevention of social tension, unrest, etc.

Facilitating Overall Development

An entrepreneur acts as a catalytic agent for change which results in a chain reaction. With the setting up of an enterprise, the process of industrialization is set in motion. This unit will generate demand for various types of inputs required by it and there will be so many other units that will require the output of this unit.

This leads to the overall development of an area due to an increase in demand and the setting up of more and more units there. Moreover, the success of one entrepreneur sets the right type of example for others to follow. Entrepreneurs thus create an environment of enthusiasm and convey a sense of purpose. This gives future impetus to the overall development of that area.


FAQs Section about the Entrepreneurship Development Program EDP

What are the achievements of EDP?

The following are the achievements of EDP:
1. Creation of Employment Opportunities
2. Capital Formation
3. Balanced Regional Development
4. Use of Local Resources
5. Improvement in Per Capita Income
6. Improvement in the Standard of Living
7. Economic and Independence
8. Preventing Industrial Slums
9. Reducing Social Tension
10. Facilitating Overall Development.

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