SBSA staff and learners successfully complete various trainings

Members of the Seychelles Business Studies Academy’s (SBSA) quality assurance committee, which also includes management members, have received certificates after successfully completing a training to improve their skills and competencies in internal quality audit.

The aim of the training was to give these individuals an overview of the internal auditing techniques from a quality assurance perspective. 

Guidance and input on how they can go about the process of drafting the internal audit tools were also shared during the training.

The workshop led by the Seychelles Bureau of Standards was organised as part of the groundwork of the committee to address one of the key targets of the academy’s institutional accreditation action plan, which is to develop and apply quality audit tools and instruments to be used for further improvement of quality assurance structures and processes at SBSA.

During the certificate presentation ceremony held at the institute last week, other staff members and students also received certificates after completing different trainings.

They included lecturers who attended a number of workshops on local taxation by the Seychelles Revenue Commission as well as 57 business management and administration learners, and five from other professional centres who had the chance to attain an extra qualification through the Start Your Business (SYB) programme.

Under this programme, learners were able to learn how to prepare their business plan and acquired further knowledge on conducting financial planning.

In her address at the ceremony, SBSA’s deputy director for studies, Maria Solin, said the SYB is a package of five modules which was developed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The module is the largest business skills development programme in the world, as it is widely recognised, and being present in over 100 countries in the world.

At SBSA, three of these modules under this programme, namely SYB, ‘Generate your business’ and ‘Improve your business’ are being used.

“I would like to express my gratitude to the chairperson of our board, Oliver Bastienne, for giving my colleagues Rasika Basanayake, Peter Too and myself the chance, through the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce, in funding our training with ILO to become ‘Start Improve Your Business’ trainers,” she said.

Ms Solin said they were trained online for a few months during 2019 and 2020 and were later able to train a few groups of learners, business owners and other people who wanted to become future entrepreneurs.

“As ILO licensed trainers, we conduct business skills development training for learners, private individuals and businesses.  Now we want to carry out the training on a larger scale as part of the incubation process being hosted by the Division of Science, Technology & Innovation (DSTI) in which individuals could gain knowledge and skills in several modules such as marketing, costing, but most importantly designing their business and financial plans. In doing so, we can help them be prepared to pitch for grants or loans later on,” she added.

We look forward to being able to train potential entrepreneurs from the different professional centres who want to start a business and who already have a concrete business idea through the SYB Modules, Ms Solin added.

“This training, we believe, should be used to benefit the business community in general which is why we are reaching out to train those who need such support through the Enterprise Seychelles Agency, Seychelles National Youth Council or DSTI,” she stated.

“We remain ever committed to ensuring that SBSA always lives up to its motto: ‘Gateway to Opportunities’, and we aim to make these opportunities available to the people of Seychelles. I once again thank all those who are our steadfast supporters in helping SBSA live by its motto.”

The accompanying photos show the various groups who received certificates.