A €5 million contribution from the European Union is helping the EBRD’s Business Advisory Services (BAS) to deliver business advice and consultancy services to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and contribute to the development of sustainable local consultancy markets in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The EBRD’s BAS, launched in 1995, conducts activities to disseminate international best practices in all its countries of operations. In a continuing effort to contribute to the development of a sustainable infrastructure of local business advisory services, to transfer international best practices to local consultants, and as part of the train-the-trainers principle, BAS in Armenia is improving consulting performance through tailor-made courses on Core Consultancy Skills and Professional Ethics delivered to consultants. Starting from 28 March, one such course will train 23 Armenian consultants in the Golden Tulip Yerevan Hotel. The Core Consultancy Skills and Professional Ethics course is an unprecedented opportunity for the Armenian consulting industry to develop a sustainable market for management consulting and to take it to a higher level by introducing international certification of business/management consultants. This initiative is a follow-up of previous training course implemented in early 2011 for business consultants from the three countries of the South Caucasus in Tbilisi, Georgia. In order to provide continuous professional development to consultants, as well as to introduce the specifics of consultants consolidation process, BAS invited Exponential Training and Assessment Limited, a UK based consulting company to deliver Core Consultancy Skills and Professional Ethics courses followed by initiating formal certification. Following last year’s course, six Armenian business consultants have successfully obtained the Certificate of Management Consultants Essentials qualification of the Institute of Consultants of UK, and three of them have later become Certified Management Consultants. At the end of 2011, under leadership of the participants of the course, and encouraged by BAS Armenia, the Institute of Management Consulting Armenia was established. The Institute aims to set the standards for Business/Management Consulting practice in Armenia and to promote international best practices and knowledge sharing. Now IMC Armenia in cooperation with the UK consultants, as well as with active support from BAS Armenia, will further develop the training infrastructure by rolling-out the training course to other Armenian business consultants. The first round of training will be held on 28-31 March in the Golden Tulip Yerevan Hotel. The BAS in Armenia was established in 2003. Over €5.3 million of donor funding has been committed to 900 BAS projects and market development activities in Armenia. The EBRD, owned by 63 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, is supporting the development of market economies and democracies. Follow us on the web, Facebook and Twitter.

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