Imagine yourself moving to another country where you don’t speak the language well. Now try starting a business. Sure, you’re ambitious. You also have experience in business management, but just filling out a business license is a challenge. Unless you want to be stuck at a low-wage job that requires no skill and provides no advancement, you need business training. You hear about “microenterprise development” at your local English class. What’s that all about?

Are our microenterprise programs equipped to help the ambitious, talented entrepreneurs who need our services to make a living at what they know best – running their own business? Providing microenterprise services to entrepreneurs with limited English skills is a challenge that can bring a community together. How do we make it happen?

Many microenterprise programs have met this challenge by hiring staff that speak the predominant second language, by acquiring translators for training, or by providing programs in a translated language. Women’s Economic Ventures in Santa Barbara has just completed a Spanish training curriculum. Trainees particularly appreciate mentoring and support from experienced entrepreneurs in their community who speak their language. El Pajaro Community Development Corporation in Watsonville, EEDC in Los Angeles, and the ALAS program of Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment in San Francisco are examples of this targeted approach.

But the challenge is compounded in communities where a number of languages are spoken. PACE in Los Angeles created a unique training and technical assistance program for entrepreneurs with limited English proficiency called “Enclave to Mainstream.” This program combines microenterprise training, delivered in English, with consulting and mentoring provided by community leaders who speak the languages of the participants.

An innovative method recently incorporated Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL) techniques in combination with microenterprise training. Developed through a partnership of CAMEO, the Peralta Community College District, and the Alameda County Social Services Agency (San Francisco Bay Area), this pilot program was offered to limited-English-speaking welfare recipients who were receiving job training at the community college. Only those who had a viable business idea, could speak some English, and had an education equivalent to some high school were allowed to take the course. Both an ESL teacher and a business trainer taught the course. The fifteen participants represented Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Viet Nam, and Cambodia.

The goals of the training were to improve the business-English proficiency of the participants so they could sell to a broader market, and to assist in the application for a business loan. The class participants practiced networking, designed marketing materials, assembled a business plan outline with financial statements, and practiced applying for business loans. The community college contributed the talents of the curriculum developer and ESL teacher, recruited the students, and donated classroom facilities. There are plans to include the training in the regular Vocational ESL program of the college. CAMEO contributed technical assistance to the project. Many thanks to DA Tran of Economic and Employment Development Center in Los Angeles for the generous donation of his time and expertise. For more information about a VESL approach to microenterprise development, contact Catherine Marshall at CAMEO, 510-238-8360.