About Us
The Strathmore Enterprise Development Centre (SEDC) is an initiative of Strathmore University. The Centre, to be located at the University campus is a private sector-driven initiative set up to address the needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and provide solutions to the various practical, real-life problems they typically encounter.
Experience over the years has shown that entrepreneurs, in addition to training, require support services to help them implement their growth plans. SEDC’s primary objective is to help owner-managers of SMEs develop their competencies to effectively manage the growth of their ventures.
The motivation for establishing the Centre is consistent with Strathmore University’s Vision to Become a leading outcome-driven entrepreneurial university in the region, offering world-class and accessible high-quality university education and training in the areas of information and communications technology, business leadership and management, hospitality management and education.
The Centre will contribute to this Vision statement by providing high-quality capacity building, value-added services and a resource centre for small and medium enterprises, to enhance business leadership and management.
Vision, Mission & Values
Mission:
The Strathmore Entrepreneurship Development Centre endeavours to promote enterprise growth nationally, regionally and internationally by offering superior quality and affordable professional training and guidance to emerging and established entrepreneurs, by undertaking appropriate research in collaboration with industry. Training at the centre is based on high ethical principles which aim at producing entrepreneurs with high professional standards and integrity.
To achieve these objectives the centre seeks to:
- Work together with industry to develop a suitable training curriculum for small and medium enterprises
- Continuously develop and support its teaching staff with advanced teaching techniques, ideas and knowledge to produce professionals who can meet new emerging industry challenges
- Support research into all aspects of entrepreneurship, together with the development and dissemination of new entrepreneurial skills
- Maintain a strong linkage with industry in the fields of enterprise research and development
- Produce socially responsible entrepreneurs of high integrity
Vision:
Aspire to be a world-class centre promoting integration between capacity building, research and industry to promote enterprise growth in an atmosphere of high ethical and professional performance.
Our Guiding Principles:
We pursue the highest quality in all our training intervention by ensuring that our materials are relevant and meet current SMEs’ needs; our facilitators are experts in their field and experienced professionals drawn from both internal teaching staff and external consultants and our approach to learning is both visionary and innovative.
Our Accreditation Status:
We are fully accredited with the NITA.
Our Team:
We have employed a core team of exceptional individuals including, a Centre Director, a Business Development Manager, a Programmes Manager, a Programmes coordinator, and an office assistant. Furthermore, we draw on a wide array of professional associates and support personnel on an as-needed basis.
The Way We Structure and Deliver our programmes/courses:
Our courses are tailored to the client’s needs with a structure that is flexible and designed to match clients’ available time and budget.
Quality Statement:
The objective of the Centre is to meet the needs of Small and Medium Enterprises through quality training, research and value-added services. The centre will achieve its goals through professional delivery of its services and by undertaking best practice in the management, administration and function of its operation.
The Centre aspires to provide a distinctive and innovative SME experience through high-quality training and support of SME owner-managers with high professional standards and integrity.
What we do
The SEDC seeks to meet the needs of SMEs in the following key areas:
- Capacity building in business management:
Through the 16 weeks (once per week) Enterprise development course, the SMEs will be equipped with the skills necessary to operate their ventures optimally and profitably. Other customized short courses are also to be offered as requested by entrepreneurs.
- Value-added Services:
These include business counselling, networking meetings, business diagnostics, mentoring, exhibitions, Local and international Business trips and retreats, consulting and linkages to other professional service providers. Entrepreneurs that have taken the Enterprise development program will also be eligible to become business club members. As members of the club, they will have access to the value-added services at discounted prices and will also have free access to the resource centre.
- Knowledge Hub:
The knowledge hub will seek to provide access to resources for SMEs to facilitate their operations. These will include Promotion of the SME sector through SME conferences, Annual Entrepreneur Awards, and an SME Directory. The hub will also offer practical resources to SMEs such as the Kenya SME toolkit, access to relevant industry research and access to a wide range of information for SMEs. The third area of focus for the knowledge hub will be the development of local case studies, conducting academic research and participating in policy formulation to help create an enabling business environment for SMEs.
- Events forums and seminars:
We continuously organize events such as Entrepreneurs’ breakfasts, dinners and seminars in different towns in the country, International Trips, retreats, SME Annual Conference, Family Business day and networking forums for Small and Medium Enterprises.
- Consultancy:
The Centre offers consultancy services in SME related work. Previously the Centre participated in MSME project of the Government of Kenya under the Ministry of Industrialization and also offered consultancy services for British Council project, IFC and Opportunity International.
Contacts
For more information, contact us via email at emuthoni@strathmore.edu or dochieng@strathmore.edu. Reach us by phone at +254 (0) 722 376 684 or +254 (0) 726 725 557.
