This course provides participants with a conceptual and practical overview of how business service providers and business membership organizations support SMEs going green.

The objective of this course is to increase participants’ understanding of the key concepts, approaches and tools to accompany existing of future green businesses to grow. It will also enable them to advocate for, initiate and implement change processes at business and policy level. The main contents of the course include:

• The business case for greening transitions: Market failures and the rationale for supporting green business growth 
• Opportunities and challenges at firm level: the internal and external drivers to going green 
• The role of SME agencies and business service providers in the green transition 
• How to design an appropriate mix of policies and support programmes to make green business growth happen 
• Tested tools and approaches to support green entrepreneurship 
• Policy advocacy tools and approaches to greening of businesses

Participants will inter alia learn about:

• Green business development services, green business competitions, green business training, marketing
• Green innovation models, certification, eco-labelling 
• Greening business operations and value chains 
• Green finance: Green loans, green bonds and green investments 
• Approaches for assessing and building a conducive environment for green businesses

The e-learning course will run over a period of 2 weeks. Throughout the entire course duration participants will have access to the ITCILO’s eCampus and self-guided e-learning modules with interactive learning activities and case studies, background reading material and key information on the course.

Throughout these 2 weeks several participatory, live online sessions will be delivered by ITCILO trainers. These online sessions offer the opportunity to learn and exchange with sector experts and professionals from international organisations, business support institutions as well as governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations on the various course topics.

During the sessions, participants will also have the possibility to further develop their skills by applying the acquired knowledge in group learning exercises. The course will close with a final assignment that will enable participants to showcase their newly acquired knowledge and put it into action.

The total time investment for the completion of the course will be 30 hours.

This course will enable participants to:

• Review state-of-the-art tools, policies and instruments for supporting greening businesses 
• Reflect and innovate upon their own service offering towards greening businesses 
• Share experiences on the challenges and opportunities for supporting green business development in different contexts 
• Exchange knowledge with a community of green champions, practitioners and high-level experts

Participants will thus be prepared to be an active part of the transition to a greener, job-rich and socially just economy by supporting green businesses in their respective countries and communities to strive.

The course will allow participants to become leaders on harnessing the emerging opportunities in a green economy and will enhance their professional profile by acquiring new skills with increasing demand in the future.

The course will be delivered in English and it will be held fully online.

After successfully completing all required activities, participants obtain an official ITCILO Certificate of Participation in Digital Credentials Format.

The tuition fee for this course is 1.030 Euros.

If you wish to participate in this course, please fill in the online application form available here: https://oarf2.itcilo.org/DST/A9718128/en

Applications must be received no later than 13 November 2025.

If the participation is sponsored by an institution, the application should be accompanied by a letter from the sponsoring organization.