Online culinary arts and entrepreneurship development for girls and women’s self-employment in Bangladesh

Despite a number of girls and women completing courses from hospitality management institutes, many of them are not continuing in the industry. One of the reasons behind this phenomenon is the social and cultural norms around gender roles. Most of the families in rural and peri urban context in Bangladesh believe that working at a hotel (or restaurant) is not a decent enough job. Therefore, while a Bangladeshi woman often is interested in work in the hospitality industry, they are not allowed to work anymore, especially once they get married. However, they are allowed to work at home both for economic activities and unpaid care work.

Tommy Miah’s Hospitality management envisions empowering these girls and women through its courses. To do so, TMHMI wants to develop and incorporate a curriculum on basic entrepreneurship in its certificate and diploma courses. This will enable the girls and women to open an online or home based enterprises around the culinary sector. TMHMI also needs capacity development support in transforming existing courses to online courses as well as to make a sustainable business model around the online courses.

From 21-24 February, CINOP & partners shared the results of the needs analysis of the project target group with the staff of Tommy Miah’s Hospitality management. During this, it appeared that both girls and women are very doubtful of an online course due to accessibility of internet and availability of devices needed. They preferred some kind of a blended course or a perhaps even better a learning on long distance course. Staff of TMHMI also commented that an online course is very difficult to asses the quality of the produced products. Therefore, we will examine other options

During the following days we worked on gender sensitization and value clarification on gender and created an outline for an entrepreneurship module. It was great to see that many of the females attending the sessions are entrepreneurs or having the ambitions to become an entrepreneur besides their teaching job.

Training Needs Assessment results

During the first phase of the project, a training needs analysis (TNA) was carried out to identify the main training needs and associated challenges of the target group. Female community members (adolescent girls and women), parents, alumni, and staff of TMHMI were interviewed.

The adolescent girls (16-19 years old) indicated that they would like to learn more about bakery and pastry, as they believe that there is a potential market for such products in their communities. In terms of following a course, the girls preferred to have online modalities available so that they can eliminate transportation, time management issues and costs. However, a major challenge with online modalities is that the girls do not always have access to the internet. Besides that, not all the required ingredients and utensils are available in the adjacent markets. In any circumstance, the security of the female trainees is of concern when commuting to the centres to take the courses.

The women (20-45 years old) that were interviewed were not sure whether a business model based on culinary arts would be accepted in their communities. Similar to the adolescent girls, they preferred online modalities for the course. However, the women indicated that there are challenges regarding the use of online tools and technologies. In terms of attending the training physically, similar challenges were mentioned: transportation and time management. The women also mentioned social stigma around opting for a training as a key factor to take into account. Thematically, the women preferred culinary arts to bakery.

There was a difference identified between women aged below 30 and those aged over 30, where the latter have limited experience with online technologies and internet platforms, are busier than other members of the family due to household activities and have less educational experience. The social stigma around going out for a course is also more present for this age group. In terms of feasibility, women aged between 22-30 therefore seem to be the best match to follow a training course and to develop a business initiative. A hybrid modality to take the courses (mixture of online and offline) might be a good fit for them. The TMHMI can even initiate more innovative solutions such as community classes for including the rural low-income girls and women in training courses.

Interviewing the families (parents) of the girls and women showed that families in the communities are very supportive of each other. Though the girls in the community all attend school which makes it a bit difficult to follow additional training courses, the parents indicated that it should be possible for the girls to spend around six hours per week on such a course. Parents were found to be a bit sceptical regarding the prospect of the girls starting a business, but said they would provide the highest support if the girls would. Sensitizing the parents on the prospect of home-based businesses could create higher demand for the course from rural and peri-urban girls and women.

The alumni that were interviewed indicated that it is difficult to get a job in culinary arts, especially for women. This finding adds to the value of developing an entrepreneurship training course for girls and women. Alumni also suggested that communication and presentation training should be added to the courses, as should basic IT skills.

The staff of TMHMI commonly mentioned that their communication and presentation skills are lacking. Moreover, staff expressed that they need more knowledge on marketing techniques to be able to sell the courses to a wider customer base. They also mentioned that they want to learn more about customer relations.