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Berkshire Enterprises Receives Grant01:37PM / Wednesday, October 07, 2009
PITTSFIELD, Mass. - Berkshire Enterprises announced that it has received approval from the Small Business Association to begin an Entrepreneurial Training Program for Displaced Workers. The funds for the grant were secured with the assistance of Congressman John Olver as part of the 2009 Federal Budget.
The funds will allow Berkshire Enterprises to run three training programs with the first starting in mid October. Berkshire Enterprises is a program of the Office for Workforce Development at Berkshire Community College.
Berkshire Enterprises is accepting applications from unemployed people who have a business idea they would like to turn into a business. Berkshire Enterprises was founded in 1989 to help dislocated workers create businesses. Since its inception, over 650 graduates of Berkshire Enterprises have used the training to turn unemployment into self employment. Nationally, over 80% of businesses fail in the first five years. Over 85% of the businesses started by Berkshire Enterprises graduates are still going after five years and many are going and growing after ten or more years.
Berkshire Enterprises has developed a strong training program to help people learn and conduct market research to test out their business ideas. The program covers all areas of writing a business plan from developing the idea to developing and implementing a marketing strategy. The training includes basic financial projections for the business.
Berkshire Enterprises new training program will be held from 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM Mondays-Thursdays starting October 14th. The program is free and interested unemployed workers should contact Steve Fogel, Program Director of Berkshire Enterprises either by email at sfogel@berkshireenterprises.com or on his cell phone at 413-441-3688 to get an application.
Applications are also available at BerkshireWorks. The space in the class is limited to 12 people and participants will be chosen based on the strength of their applications. Space will fill up quickly and the next program will not start until March. A program of the Office for Workforce Development Berkshire Community College. |
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| Do yourself a favor and sign up! These people are great. | | from: David Deming | on: 10-15-2009 12:00AM
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