CEFE is a comprehensive set of training instruments designed to stimulate positive change in various development processes via experiential learning methods.
CEFE Method provides highly participative, action-oriented training in all areas related to entrepreneurship and private sector development; through the promotion of entrepreneurial competence and better performance of businesses and organizations, CEFE contributes to employment creation, income generation and thus to a sustainable economic development.
The Competency based Economies through Formation of Entrepreneurs (CEFE) is one of the most successful methods of teaching business development. CEFE comprehensive set of training instruments using an action-oriented approach and experiential learning methods to develop and enhance the business management and personal competencies of a wide range of target groups, mostly in the context of income and employment generation and economic development. It represents an accumulation of instruments for entrepreneurship training combined with an active and dynamic approach and methods of empirical learning in order to develop and improve managerial and individual skills.
Rather than solely transmitting information, CEFE trainings aim at creating competences including knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits. The trainings enhance the participants’ ability for self-organised decisions and action taking in complex and continuously changing systems.
The different training modules are based on the “Experiential Learning Cycle” and comprise structured discussions, deductive trainings, case studies, role-plays, simulations, field studies and fieldwork.
The training method was developed in 1983 by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and introduced in numerous development projects around the world. More than 20 000 trainers were qualified in the CEFE methodology and since then conduct CEFE courses with a wide range of target groups. CEFE training tools were adopted to offer tailor made training modules to specific exigencies and beneficiaries. CEFE courses therefore range from business creation courses to customized courses like financial management, rural development, entrepreneurial skills, project management, team building, corporate social responsibility, green economy, youth employment and many more.