10 October 2012
Jason Benedict, the Rwanda Business Development Center (BDC) cofounder, said:
“As a social venture, one of our goals as a BDC is to provide transformational training in best practice
that will have a positive impact on the Rwandan marketplace and society in general.”
In October 2012 the BDC had yet another opportunity to further this vision by offering two trainings to the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA). Ten managers and 37 staff members received intensive training in customer care over a four-day period. The week began with specialized strategy training for the managers, followed by three days of skills training in for front line staff.
Mr. Benedict, the main facilitator for the training said, “I was very impressed by the enthusiasm that this group brought to the subject of customer care. I could tell that this was an area where they were committed to improving.”
One participant in the training said, “We learned a lot from this training. We thought we knew, but we found a lot we didn’t know. We are going to use these skills to improve our work and our company.”
Feedback from this training was overwhelmingly positive from participants and organizers. The only consistent complaint on evaluation forms was that participants wished the training was longer than three days because they felt there was even more to learn. In response to this concern, Mr. Benedict said, “This is a criticism we can live with.”
In August 2010, the Regent Center for Entrepreneurship founded the BDC as a specialized training organization in Kigali, Rwanda. The programs of the BDC include a 14-week action training program designed to equip entrepreneurs with the skills they need to start and grow their own businesses. In addition to the 14 week program, the BDC has worked to serve prominent government and private sector organizations through corporate training. To date, the BDC has sponsored sector specific trainings for the hospitality sector, financial services, and the information and communication technology sector. In addition to this, last October with the help of our partners at Chick-fil-A, we sponsored training for major Rwandan companies and government organizations on customer service. This training was well attended and received overwhelmingly positive feedback.