As a major engine for value addition in supply chains, employment, income generation, and innovation momentum, SMEs are crucial for economic development. However, the business scopes, scales, models, management styles, and levels of technological adoption of SMEs vary so significantly that it is exceptionally challenging to evaluate their performance against common benchmarks and formulate strategies for continued improvement and gainsharing.

SMEs encounter difficulty in assessing their performance because they lack record-keeping and data collection capacity and have insufficient access to techniques for analysis. They also have fewer resources to prioritize productivity measurement as a key factor for continued growth. With wider access to the internet and digital technologies, SMEs can now more easily track, measure, and benchmark the returns on resource inputs and overall performance.

It is therefore necessary to share practical approaches and digital tools to assist the continuous improvement of SMEs. This e-course will provide updated knowledge and tools for productivity measurement and analysis to assist SMEs in sustaining improvement in the digital economy.

Course Objectives

The main objectives of this course are:

• Impart the latest key productivity concepts for SMEs.
• Introduce practical approaches and digital tools to measure and analyze SME productivity.
• Formulate strategies for productivity enhancement and gainsharing for SMEs.

Course Modules

This e-learning course will cover the following modules:
Module 1: Productivity in SMEs: Concepts and implications 
Module 2: Latest tools and methodologies for productivity measurement and analysis 
Module 3: Productivity measurement: Practical steps for applications in SMEs 
Module 4: Case studies: Productivity measurement and analysis in the manufacturing and service sectors 
Module 5: Sustaining growth through productivity gainsharing systems

Important Notes:

1. Participants who register to take this course and pass the final examination with a score of 70% or higher will be eligible to receive the APO certificate. Please note that the final examination can be taken only once. Therefore, the most appropriate time to take the examination should be chosen carefully. The self-assessment quizzes are for personal evaluation only and are not related to the final examination results.
2. Participants who perform well in this course and receive the APO certificate will be given preference, on a merit basis, for selection to attend follow-up face-to-face multicountry APO projects on similar topics, when nominated by their NPOs and if slots are available. 
3. Notes 1 and 2 are applicable only to participants from APO member countries. Participants from nonmember countries are welcome to take the course for self-improvement, although they will not have an opportunity to attend the follow-up face-to-face multicountry APO projects.
4. Each module is in a prerecorded video format in which the expert delivers presentations by explaining each slide. Participants can access the video by clicking on the link provided under the title of each module.