Graduates get insight into consultancy business

ecbp and the Dutch development agency SNV have now started Ethiopia’s first trainee program in the field of consultancy for talented new graduates – a first for the country.

Ethiopian consultancy companies are vital to the country’s development in terms supporting companies and making them internationally viable. Well developed businesses in all parts of the world rely on consulting for various aspects of work, so in Ethiopia where the private sector is still in its infancy, consultancies are extremely valuable resources.

The consultancy companies that are operating in Ethiopia, are more often small businesses run by only a few people, this hinders them from taking multiple jobs. This is unlike in the US and Europe where consultancy companies are driven by the hard work of energized recent university graduates under the guidance of more experienced managers. Employing larger numbers of young energetic people in this sector would lead to a greater availability of consultancy services available to Ethiopian businesses.

ecbp together with the Dutch organization SNV (Netherlands Development Organization) has started a program to train talented young graduates in the field of consultancy. By providing training to the best and the brightest young graduates and finding internships for them in the Business Development Sector (BDS), these young people will learn what it is like to be a consultant, and these organizations will realize the value of hardworking recent graduates.

For Tewodros Yilma, CEO of Yilma Global Consult, it did not take long to realize what his new intern, Eden Getachew had to offer. “The first thing I was told to do was develop a strategic plan for a company,” said Eden. Having never done anything like that before, Eden was surprised to be assigned something like this, but she worked hard and with some oversight from her new boss produced a great strategy which pleased the company. In addition to developing the plan, Eden was also responsible for presenting the plan to the company; something which Tewodros said was appreciated by the company, as they felt it was nice to see young graduates taking on such responsibilities.

In addition to their on the job training, the interns receive classroom trainings from ecbp and FirstConsult, an SNV contracted consultancy, to add to the skills they are learning at work.

Consultancies are not the only organizations benefiting from this program; associations and chambers, also considered part of the BDS, have received interns as well. As this program is a first for any Ethiopian sector, and the hope is that it will continue on its own, the organizations agreeing to take interns in this pilot year (Oct 2007 – Oct 2008) face very little risk as ecbp and SNV are covering half their salaries. Valerie Schuster, Private Sector Development expert with ecbp, explains, “Young graduates are highly motivated and willing to work hard, but they are not given sufficient value and often have difficulties finding a job in Ethiopia. In Europe and North America, lots of innovative companies are run by young people. We want to show that this can also work in Ethiopia.”

Tewodros is already working to ensure that Eden will stay with him after the internship program is done. He has tasked Eden with developing a performance based salary policy which will allow him to keep Eden and others like her on his records and pay them according to the amount of work they produce.