International Women’s Day- Encouraging Entrepreneurship

March 8, 2010

Helping women to overcome the barriers they face in business is a priority for the Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub, Centre for Enterprise, at the University of Glamorgan.

With support from the Lifelong Learning Programme, it is leading on a pan-European project with partners in France and Lithuainia – Women’s Entrepreneurship in the European Union (WEEU). This will result in new approaches, teaching methods and materials to help women maximise the impact in their businesses of developments in business planning, creativity and innovation, social entrepreneurship, work life balance and sustainability.

Project leader Chris Atkinson commented, “Globally men are twice as likely as women to start a new business in high income countries. In Europe, women account for only 30% of entrepreneurs. The point of the WEEU project is to equip women with the tools they need to develop their entrepreneurial skills and sustain a viable and successful business.”

She continued, “We are currently seeking funding to follow this with a number of projects including one involving five European countries with a focus on helping women business owners with networking and mentoring (including virtual networking and e-mentoring) schemes and a programme of benchmarking exchange visits between the five countries and masterclass academies to support skill development in these areas.”

As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, Chris Atkinson will attend Women Inspiring Women in Bridgend which is organised by Chwarae Teg Agile Nation. Tomorrow, she will also attend Cardiff Chwarae Teg International Women’s Day Debate.

Tagged: business enterprise research