Center-Invest Bank, the Administration of Rostov Region, and the Rostov Regional Institute for Teacher Advanced Training and Retraining have awarded prizes to the winners of the competition held among Don teachers to develop educational materials for a course in “The Principles of Enterprise".

The competition was run as part of Center-Invest's “Enterprise for All” programme. We awarded a prize of RUB50,000 to the overall winner of the competition, and twelve teachers from Rostov-on-Don and the Rostov region received runners-up prizes of RUB20,000 and RUB10,000.

The work of the Don region teachers was based on the book by the chairman of the Center-Invest Bank Board of Directors, Dr Vasily Vysokov, “Small Business: Enterprise for All for Schoolchildren”. Published in May 2010, the book provides an introduction to enterprise, and it is being promoted by the weekly business publication Gorod N and the Krestyanin newspaper.

The textbook examines the nature of small business, the difference between small companies and large corporations, and the new ideology of small business in the modern economy. It provides answers to questions asked by all fledgling entrepreneurs, from how to set up a small company to the ins and outs of running your business.

The resource is being distributed free of charge in schools in Rostov and the Rostov region and among teachers attending the Rostov Regional Institute for Teacher Advanced Training and Retraining. Center-Invest Bank and the Administration of Rostov Region are also distributing the book at seminars and briefings on small business.

The teachers' work adds to the first version of the online textbook “The Principles of Enterprise” (http://biz.mbdon.ru/). In the future, not only teachers, but also business people, will be able to update this electronic resource.

Dr. Vasily Vysokov writes in the book that, “The world is being changed by entrepreneurs, by specialists from different spheres of knowledge and professions, united by a common quality: the ability to integrate the factors of production into the one process and to organise the manufacturing of goods and the provision of services for which there is demand. Everyone who wants to realise their potential to change their environment should possess this ability. It is both an art and a science.” 

Center-Invest already has experience of providing training in the basics of running your own business. In May 2009 we developed training materials and held a series of seminars for the heads of job centres, organisations supporting SMEs, and teachers from Don region higher education institutions.