Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme

As many as 32 women entrepreneurs graduated from the Walmart Women Entrepreneurship Development Program (WEDP) recently. The programme trained these entrepreneurs in professional and soft skills to help build robust businesses. The graduation event was attended by women entrepreneurs, retail industry experts, NGOs and government officials. WEDP was supported by Walmart and implemented by WEConnect International and Vrutti.

The programme was launched in April 2016 and consisted of several training modules to help develop the pipeline of women-owned businesses for the industry. Walmart India identified eight of the WOBs as future Walmart India suppliers as the products fitted the assortment apart from meeting all other parameters to becoming a supplier.

At the graduation event, Walmart announced the project’s continuation into its second year. The details of the application process for the training programme, as well as the criteria for selection will be announced in the near future.

During the 11-month programme, the women underwent a structured capacity- building training, mentoring and technical support customised to the needs of their businesses and delivered through various formats including classroom sessions, workshops, field trips, webinars etc. WEDP was announced in January 2016 inviting applications from WOBs in food and non-food categories located in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Telangana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh and formally launched in April 2016.   — TNS