During the life period of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in incubators they need some training programs to acquire the required knowledge in order to survive and succeed in the business environment. This paper presents a heuristic method based on an optimization model to schedule these programs at the most suitable times. Based on the proposed heuristic, each training program is implemented in a suitable time by considering the SMEs' requirements and some other logical constraints. The proposed heuristic is described in detail, and its implementation is demonstrated via a real-life numerical example. The numerical results of the heuristic are compared with other methods.

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This paper presents a mathematical model for training scheduling for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in incubators. Based on the proposed model, each training program is specified to be held in the most suitable time by considering the SMEs' requirements and some other logical constraints. Construction of the proposed model is illustrated in details and its implementation is demonstrated via a real numerical example.