ASUNCION, Paraguay, March 11, 2010 - Cisco today announced the inauguration of the Cisco® Entrepreneur Institute in Paraguay to help owners of small and medium-sized businesses improve their business skills and learn how to effectively use information and communications technologies.

The first training center will be the Fundación Paraguaya, which during the first year will provide basic courses from the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute curriculum to more than 100 Paraguayan entrepreneurs.

Fundación Paraguaya is a company that promotes entrepreneurship among individuals with few resources, helping them to create jobs and increase their family income.

Highlights:

• The Cisco Entrepreneur Institute resulted from an agreement signed between Cisco and the Fundación Paraguaya. The initiative aims to contribute to the development of small and medium-sized businesses through the use of ICT, the expansion of broadband penetration, and the transfer of knowledge about business practices and information and communications technologies.
• Initially the Fundación Paraguaya will provide Cisco Entrepreneur Institute courses in the city of Asunción.
• Workshops for entrepreneurs and business people will start on March 5 and 6.
• Courses will be delivered through a combination of e-learning, in-person lessons and audiovisual material.
• Students at the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute will have access to Web 2.0 technologies and advanced and open architecture tools such as Moodle (the mostly widely used e-learning platform in the world), as well as collaboration technologies like Cisco WebEx® for a more comprehensive learning experience.
• Courses at the institute will be based on the experiences of successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and major companies, combined with Cisco's practical knowledge acquired in more than 25 years of business experience.
• The institute uses teaching resources made available from institutions such as Stanford University, Cornell University and My Own Business, a nonprofit organization with more than 15 years of experience supporting the creation of successful businesses.

Supporting Quotes:

• Juan Pablo Estevez, regional director, Cisco Southern Cone (Latin America)

"Entrepreneurship is a key dynamic of economic growth and the generation of jobs in the country. Cisco wants to be a strategic ally to foster innovation, technological development and productivity among Paraguayan entrepreneurs. The Cisco Entrepreneur Institute will take advantage of all the potential and value of information and communications technologies to strengthen entrepreneurs' skills and make them competitive."

"We want to contribute to the development of the country through the education of its entrepreneurs. Helping the country's entrepreneurs strengthen their businesses through the use of technology will contribute to the generation of sustainable companies capable of facing the new challenges of the global market."

• Roberto Urbieta, director of Enterprising Education (Educación Emprendedora) of  Fundación Paraguaya

"The launch of the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute in Paraguay, in alliance with Fundación Paraguaya, reinforces our commitment to promote the entrepreneurship culture in the country and help the gestation of new ventures that propel national development."

"We know that in Paraguay we have the talent, willingness and vision to do business, but we need initiatives like this to give support and training so that entrepreneurs and owners of micro, small and medium-sized businesses strengthen their knowledge and develop successful ideas."

The Cisco Entrepreneurship Institute in Latin America

Currently, the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute is present in the following countries of Latin America: Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru, and has the support of the government of each country.

In Mexico, the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute has trained 120 owners of small and medium-sized businesses during its two years of presence in the country. In Chile, the institute has trained the owners of 200 small businesses.

In Colombia, the institute works with the Red Nacional de Emprendimiento del Ministerio de Comercio Industria y Turismo (National Venture Network of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism) and with the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje, SENA (National Learning Service). During the first six months, the institute trained about 4,500 entrepreneurs in Colombia.

Last December the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute opened its doors in Peru, in alliance with the Asociación Pro Bienestar y Desarrollo, or PROBIDE, to train 800 entrepreneurs in Lima during its first year.

In Costa Rica the most recent institute in Latin America was opened, in alliance with ITS InfoCom and Parque Tec, which during the first year will train 500 Costa Rican entrepreneurs.

About Fundación Paraguaya

Fundación Paraguaya is a social vanguard company that searches for innovative solutions to poverty and unemployment, and spreads those solutions proactively to the world. In addition, it promotes urban and rural entrepreneurship through three related strategies:

1. A program of micro-finance that supports micro-business owners and emerging entrepreneurs generally overlooked by other micro-finance institutions.
2. An economic education program for children and young people (junior achievement).
3. A self-sufficient agricultural school that teaches organic agriculture and business skills to young people of few resources coming from rural areas, to transform them from "poor peasants" to "rural entrepreneurs."

The three programs are separated but strongly integrated at an operating level so that each program enriches and is enriched by the other two. This synergy of "added value" is the strength that guides the "business model" of the institution. 

For further information please visit: www.fundacionparaguaya.org.py