Amazon and IE University receive the Merit Award 2022 for the joint program Despega for SMEs and entrepreneurs

Amazon and IE University have been awarded with the Merit Award 2022 in the People Development category for their education programs Despega de Amazon (Spain) and Accelera con Amazon (Italy) to support small businesses and entrepreneurs to sell online. More than 40,000 participants in Spain and Italy have already received free training to deepen their understanding of the challenges of digital transformation, how to boost growth and digitize their SMEs, develop a business plan, and overcome challenges in commercial management, as well as keeping up with trends in financial management and exports. The objective of the Merit Awards is to recognize transformative leadership and team development projects promoted by companies and institutions at an international level.

“Despega de Amazon” and “Accelera con Amazon” offer small businesses and entrepreneurs different training paths based on their needs and degree of digitalization through a series of modules taught by professors from IE University, Politecnico di Milano School of Management, along with ecommerce experts from Amazon and other organisations in the sector such as ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones. Participants are trained in online courses on a flexible basis depending on their availability. Upon completion of the training, participants receive a course completion certificate. In addition, they also have a support community they can discuss doubts with and promote learning. Further information can be found here.

“We are proud to have won the Merit Award in the “People Development” category. The Despega program supports and positively impacts thousands of SMEs and entrepreneurs. Our goal is to boost their growth, contribute to their development, competitiveness and digitalization, together with Amazon and the Politecnico di Milano School of Management.”
Martin Rodriguez, Director of IE Publishing and Executive Education Online at IE University

“A year on from launching the Despega program, it is encouraging to see the resilience and adaptability of Spanish small and medium-sized companies and how online sales are key for their business growth in Spain and internationally. Small businesses are a key pillar of the Spanish economy and a job creation engine in the country, and for this reason, we have committed to educate 50,000 Spanish SMEs and entrepreneurs to sell online by the end of 2025,” says Ryan Frank, head of Marketplace Services at Amazon in Spain.