Bhubaneswar, Aug. 8: Workshops on the digital marketing skills for women entrepreneurs and self-help groups (SHG) will be held in the state in collaboration with Facebook.

In a meeting, chaired by additional chief secretary of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) department L.N. Gupta, it was announced that the social networking giant would partner with the state government to train 25,000 woman entrepreneurs belonging to the MSME sector and their counterparts in the SHGs in the next one year.

The workshops will be held at various locations such as Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Balasore, Berhampur, Angul, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Rayagada, Jeypore, Puri and Keonjhar.

The workshops' primary objective is to help entrepreneurs belonging to the MSME, SHGs and artisans of Odisha develop skill and train them to go digital and grow their business by leveraging social media.

The Facebook team will teach them the digital skills to promote their respective products or services, so that they can increase their reach to a larger and intended customer base. "The workshops will not only empower the MSME entrepreneurs digitally, but also offer them a platform for interaction between the SHGs and the existing MSME entrepreneurs," said Gupta.

Commissioner-cum-director of Mission Shakti Sujata R. Karthikeyan said the workshops would be an important milestone in digital inclusion of members of the MSME and the SHGs.

The first such hands-on workshop will be held on Thursday in Bhubaneswar. More than 800 women entrepreneurs are expected to attend the workshop.

Policy programmes manager (India and South Asia chapter) of Facebook Rajat Arora said: "The new world skills will enable Odisha's entrepreneurs to accelerate their business through online exposure and integration with global markets. Our partnership with the state government is a steady step towards the next phase of economic growth in Odisha."