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Institute of Advanced Technological and Commercial Studies

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Creating your own venture or selling across borders

Two programmes speak to whoever wants trade as their ground. One builds the venture and its business model, the other the operations of exchange across borders. Here are their durations, weekly loads, credits and fees, in one table.

Two ways of doing business

Entrepreneurship builds the venture: validating the need, business model, funding plan, incorporation, first customers, first hires, cash steering. International trade builds the transaction: sourcing, incoterms, transport, transit and customs, documentary finance, negotiating with counterparts from other cultures. The first makes you a founder, the second an operator of exchanges. They meet the day your venture starts exporting.

The figures of both programmes

CriterionEntrepreneurshipInternational Trade
Duration18 months2 years
PaceSelf-pacedCompatible with a job
Weekly workload13 h per week20 h per week
Teaching blocks67
Supervised hours600 h1200 h
Credits60 credits120 credits
Fees4 400 000 GNF per year5 000 000 GNF per year

The outcomes listed in the catalogue

Entrepreneurship

  • Business founder
  • Business acquirer
  • Business development manager
  • Incubator support officer

International Trade

  • Import-export manager
  • Customs declarant
  • International logistics officer
  • International buyer

How to choose yours

Your starting point

An idea you want to turn into a company: entrepreneurship. A flow of goods to organise: international trade.

Your working pace

The table gives both regimes: one is steered by you while your venture advances, the other follows a session calendar.

Your horizon

Eighteen months to set up a venture, or twenty-four to gain full command of the exchange chain: both are in the table.

What candidates ask

Does the entrepreneurship programme cover exports?

It covers business development and market search; the international trade programme makes it its main subject.

Can you found a company during the trade programme?

Yes, its pace is compatible with an activity, and the capstone project may address your own venture.

Which programme opens customs and transit roles?

International trade prepares for them, and the occupational titles catalogue names these roles precisely with their blocks.

Creating your own venture or selling across borders — Compare | IHETC — IHETC