EMPOWERING FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN MAURITIUS IN CASE STUDY APPROACH
Authors:
Betchoo Nirmal Kumar
Abstract:
Knowledge sharing is today’s challenge in imparting effective knowledge to the community as universities tend to focus on academic knowledge based on theoretical foundations and abstract concepts. These are in essence useful and practical for students but when it comes to sharing such knowledge to the community, it becomes demanding to undertake such an effort. This paper posits that there was an earlier effort of sharing knowledge through university-based teaching and research to the Mauritian community, especially female entrepreneurs. This exercise was possible through a training programme jointly offered by the HRDC and the University of Technology/Universite des Mascareignes back in 2011. The training covered three critical areas namely Accounting and Finance, Marketing and Business Management. Such a programme was offered both in three urban and rural locations with potential and already self-employed female entrepreneurs in the age group 20 to 55. It was seen that knowledge sharing took place in effective classroom interaction with a teaching methodology that used Kreol as a medium while emphasis was on research undertaken in each of the chosen fields. Using a descriptive case study approach, this paper highlights both the effectiveness of the training programme and how it has been helpful in sharing and transferring knowledge from academia on to society using social sciences as a medium of teaching and learning outside the traditional classroom.