VIVE Project generated a Training and Economic Opportunities Strategy in the Context of COVID-19

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2020/04/08

Originally published on The Trust for the Americas blog by Elizabeth Laredo and Maria Fernanda Sierra.

We thank Walmart Foundation for your support in these efforts.

At the end of March, we launched a successful digital strategy to offer quality training and content for female graduates of the VIVE Project and new participants:

  1. Online virtual sessions:

The sessions respond to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding social distancing and the current COVID-19 crisis, with virtual and innovative measures to continue implementing our training offer.

  • We design 9 digital seminars that will be held between March 25 and April 30, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. Mexico City time. These sessions are held via Facebook LIVE, which fosters dynamic interaction and community building among the participants. Some sessions are complemented by podcasts.
  • As of April 8, we have successfully delivered 4 virtual courses in two weeks, reaching a total of 473 participants (+80% women), more than 4,000 views, and more than 8,000 people reached on Facebook (@ProyectoVIVEmx).
  • We continue with the dissemination of “VIVE En Línea” on the Virtual Classroom from Trust: This content is aligned with three certification standards offered by the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competencies (CONOCER), an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico. The course is open to the general public.
  1. Exclusive Content for Alumnae:

We design exclusive content for women who are graduates of the VIVE Project, these materials are shared through Facebook, specifically in the private Facebook group “Project VIVE Alumnae Community”. These contents are:

    1. Short tutorials on how to use digital tools for sales: The duration of these videos is between 5 and 10 minutes, in which a step-by-step explanation is given on how to use the most common free online sales tools. The content is designed for female graduates with little to almost no digital literacy. Topics include: How to make my business's Facebook page? How to register my business in the VIVE Women Entrepreneurs Directory? How to use Microsoft Office to design posts about my business?
    2. Content with recommendations on how to promote your businesses during the COVID-19 contingency: intended for female graduates with advanced digital literacy.
    3. Recommendations on relevant training sessions to help your businesses cope with the emergency. Promote the registration and use of the VIVE Women Entrepreneurs Directory:

3. Promote the registration and use of the VIVE Women Entrepreneurs Directory:

At the end of 2019, we created a directory of female entrepreneurs where graduates of the VIVE Project can register basic information about their businesses and promote them. We are in charge of publicizing the directory through our online community and with our strategic partners. For more information, here are the links to consult the blog and the directory.

  • We are going to strengthen our effort in promoting the directory in the following manner:
      1. Design a strategy to make the Directory more visible to potential buyers.
      2. Expand the scope of the Directory to include other projects by TheTrust for the Americas, such as those currently being implemented in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, thereby linking it to a regional initiative.
  1. Create a Talent Pool to promote among our potential partners: Considering that despite our efforts the business sector will be heavily hurt during the contingency, we seek to strengthen our employability component by creating a Talent Pool that we can share with our partners in the private sector and provide them with a list of potential employees who meet their selection criteria.
  2. “Handwashing” Jingle: In 2018 we had a contest among the female graduates to select the best “jingle” of the project. Raquel Pedroza, a graduate in Mexico City, created the winning song. We took this jingle and turned it into a short video to promote proper handwashing (Link to the video). Raquel is an active participant in our alumnae community and participated in the CDMX Pitch Contest Series in 2019.

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