From selling hand-woven textiles to opening restaurants, ESCALA is bringing its Female-focused business school to marginalized entrepreneurs in Peru.
What is the ESCALA business school?
ESCALA is a Business School and Capacity Training Program that provides poor communities with the tools to establish, build, manage, and sustain locally-owned businesses in Peru. ESCALA, the Spanish word for ladder and an acronym for Escuela de Negocios para la Conservación y Avance de Latino América, is designed specifically for marginalized entrepreneurs, almost all of whom are women, training them in skills such as the identification of potential markets, sales, procurement, accounting, and management. By training entrepreneurs of all ages and backgrounds to successfully build a profitable business, ESCALA creates a solution to the lack of economic opportunity in growing low-resource communities.
Our Business school model
This adaptable business school model teaches participants how to create resilient businesses that are profitable, independent, and sustainable. Participants are divided into online cohorts of about 50 students where they attend 40 hours of workshops that build skills in eight critical areas (see photo), as well as smaller group mentoring and practice sessions. Participants are also part of the ESCALA network, building peer to peer relationships that enhance their businesses.
Proven Results: SISAN
An early example of efficacy of the ESCALA business school curriculum was the incredible success of SISAN, an all-female artisans association started by SPI. In Pachacamac, a World Heritage Site outside of Lima, Peru, ESCALA partnered with 24 local artisans to create a women-owned business selling heritage-inspired crafts in the site museum gift shop. Most of these local women had never earned an independent income and suffered from the lack of economic opportunity around Pachacamac. With business training provided by ESCALA, these women created an enterprise named SISAN, meaning flourishing in the indigenous Quechua language. Today, SISAN is a fully independent and profitable business that is not only providing a liveable income for these women, but also preserving the cultural heritage of Pachacamac.
ESCALA Progress Report
100% of participants are women! ESCALA empowers female entrepreneurs by giving them the tools to hurdle economic and social barriers as business owners.
Many participants lack a high school education, but already run an informal business of some kind - ESCALA is designed to be tailored to different cultural context, literacy levels, and business experience.
ESCALA students are responding to the devastating covid-19 pandemic in Peru.
Our first class graduated on November 30th 2019! Read all about it here.
During Covid, ESCALA moved entirely online. As part of our efforts to expand the availability of SPI Business Schools and respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, our curriculums are now deliverable in both in-person and digital formats. With increasing challenges presented by Covid19, we migrated the entire Business School curriculum to a distance learning model so we could continue to provide ongoing support and training to struggling small business owners.
This year we will have over 700 participants!
