Kirk Smith, Nancy Napier (seated from left)

Two Boise State business professors recently offered a “train the trainer” course to Vietnamese consultants and educators in Hanoi and Nha Trang (in south Vietnam) on how to provide training to small- and medium-sized firms.

Kirk Smith, associate dean for executive education and head of the Executive MBA program in the College of Business and Economics, along with international business professor Nancy Napier offered training to two groups – about 20 people in Hanoi and 25 in Nha Trang – on how to sell training programs, how to facilitate training and how to write and use business cases in their training.

The participants were consultants and university educators who will be part of a Danish-funded capacity building project to help small business owners become exporters. The project involves training the trainers, who in turn will deliver much of their subsequent training to small business owners in the provinces outside of the large cities.

The executive training session followed a weeklong residency and “trade mission” of sorts in Hanoi by Boise State’s Executive MBA participants as part of the program’s international component. The group studied the country’s rapidly emerging economy, met with U.S. embassy and Vietnamese government officials and explored possible business opportunities with a number of both private and government-run enterprises.

More information about the trip can be found at http://boisestateinvietnam.wordpress.com/.