The ASEAN SME Academy e-learning platform was developed as part of a collaborative effort between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC) and the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ACCMSME). The core of the Academy is a series of courses for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) provided at no cost by international organizations and US-ABC member companies. In 2021, the Academy was fully upgraded to improve the overall user experience and accessibility of the website.
The upgraded website offers a new feature called the Business Continuity and Resilience (BCR) Tab, of which the development process is led by the USAID-funded ASEAN-USAID Inclusive Growth in ASEAN through Innovation, Trade, and E-Commerce (ASEAN-USAID IGNITE) project.
The BCR Tab is a one-stop webpage where the Academy users can access e-learning modules, webinars, communities of practice, and curated tools and resources on business continuity and resilience to equip and support them in their COVID-19 economic recovery and transformation. In other words, the BCR Tab enables its users to future-proof their business!
Under the BCR Tab, learning materials and resources are presented in four interactive courses that can be taken by the Academy users at their own learning pace. These four courses are available in English, Vietnamese, Thai, and Bahasa Indonesia.
Four Courses to Aid Small Businesses in
Business Continuity and Business Resiliency Planning
Transforming Mindsets and Teams
This course lays out basic competence and knowledge for ASEAN MSMEs to triumph in a global economy and level the playing field with larger companies. ASEAN MSMEs will experience building business continuity plans, building digital native culture in the business, and preparing teams for a digital managing environment that enables them to deal with the challenges arising from change.
This course focuses on developing the essential competencies needed by MSMEs planning to digitize their businesses. The course will support the ASEAN MSMEs in establishing an online presence that will further connect them with their customers and build lead generation. ASEAN MSMEs will acquire new skill sets and confidence to act, make decisions, and plan for continuing their business based on data analytics and data trends covered in this course.
This course focuses on unlocking the power of digital payments, content, digital advertisements, and digitized operations to future-proof ASEAN MSMEs. This course will support MSMEs in accepting payments via e-wallets, harnessing digital payments data, creating killer content, producing engaging campaigns, and tracking conversions to increase results. ASEAN MSMEs will also be aided to make their businesses accessible to global customers as a strategy to make their businesses resilient in the digital era.
This course focuses on the need for ASEAN MSMEs to adapt to the trends in a highly changing environment to future-proof their business. In this course, ASEAN MSMEs will be supported in harnessing the power of social media and other digital tools. This course also covers sustainability in business operations and the ability to cope and manage disruptions, which will provide fundamental competencies for ASEAN MSMEs to embrace the future.