ASBTDC’s Whitney Horton, Nancy Knighten, Jarrod Norwood, and Shannon Roberts participated in FastTrac® NewVenture™ Facilitator Certification Training, Jan. 21-22, at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo. Roberts also attended FastTrac Program Director Certification Training.
FastTrac facilitators are trained to use Kauffman materials to drive learning by “presenting information, asking questions and directing structured, experiential learning opportunities so participants learn in an optimal environment,” according to Kauffman. Program directors have additional responsibilities for planning and managing the delivery of Kauffman courses.
Kauffman offers supplementary facilitator training online. Horton, Knighten, Norwood and Roberts will complete the FastTrac GrowthVenture™ online module in May.
All four plan to incorporate their experience into their work with prospective and current small business owners at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center. As a Kauffman FastTrac affiliate, ASBTDC is authorized to offer FastTrac NewVenture and GrowthVenture programs and workshops.
“The Kauffman approach is outstanding in the way that it clearly defines goals and hurdles for entrepreneurs and tailors a process that can be daunting into a process that is understandable and streamlined,” said Norwood, a business consultant at the center. Also, Norwood said he learned the value of “not just talking at new entrepreneurs, regurgitating information that can be hard for them to understand.” Kauffman facilitation techniques will help him in “leading them to water, not sticking their heads in it.”
All FastTrac-certified ASBTDC staffers collaborate as instructors for the 11-week City of Little Rock Entrepreneurial Training Course, which the center conducts each spring and fall in partnership with the city’s Small Business Development Office.
Update:
Talk Business & Politics highlighted the ASBTDC foursome’s Kauffman experience it its article UALR Staff Complete Entrepreneurial Training at Kauffman Foundation.
