British Council offers online training for creative entrepreneurs

The British Council has translated the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Creative Enterprise Toolkit, which was developed for creative entrepreneurs, into Turkish with the contributions of the Bursa, Eskişehir and Bilecik Development agencies. Creative Enterprise Training was launched last year in Turkey in an attempt to build on the ideas of entrepreneurs who want to set up businesses in creative industries and discover the network of necessary relations. Training lasts five days, and it aims to help entrepreneurs operate in creative industries such as cinema, visual arts, performing arts, music, fashion, design, cartoons, games, architecture, handicrafts and publishing and so on for less than 18 months. Until now, Creative Enterprise Training has been delivered in many cities in Turkey, and the latest was organized in Istanbul in cooperation with the IKSV (Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts) Innovation Center, supported by Istanbul Development Agency's 2014 Innovative Istanbul financial aid program. According to the UNDP's (United Nations Development Program) Creative Economy Report, Turkey is one of the three top-performing developing countries in terms of creative services exports, including arts and handicrafts, publishing, performing arts and visual arts.

The toolkit contains information, recommendations, exercises and activities that will allow entrepreneurs to tell their own "stories." When entrepreneurs complete the toolkit, they will learn how to guarantee success and sustainability and how to make money. The Creative Enterprise Toolkit can be downloaded free of charge from the British Council's web site: http://goo.gl/pdBTWE.

Since 2012, through Creative Enterprise Training delivered in cooperation with NESTA, the British Council has supported hundreds of entrepreneurs in many countries, including Russia, Brazil, Vietnam and Nigeria. Creative industries play a key role for economic recovery, generating income and employment as well as export earnings.