BUSINESS ORIENTED YOUNG WOMEN: HOW TO SUPPORT AND EMPOWER THEIR ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCES

The project EMPOWER is conceived as a tool to promote and reboot young women entrepreneurship against unemployment, entry barriers of the sector through the digital training of people in entrepreneurial skills and exchange of good practices, facilitating the learning of business management contents specifically adapted to the needs of the target group advancing and promoting competitiveness, economic diversification, the sustainable development and job creation. Women are the most affected from the Covid-19 pandemic, that have been hit in several aspects of life, included their participation in the labour market.

The specific objectives of the EMPOWER project are:

-To provide employment guidance systems to young women who want to undertake and lead social enterprises or to take up the entrepreneurship world through the production of high-quality materials and tailor-made training with new methods and more effective and individualized tools to support young women;

-To give young women access to relevant networks through the involvement of stakeholders, organizations active in the field and other policymakers at the most appropriate level. Networks are key factors in business success by providing access to information, advice, finance and business contacts;

-To support the priority of advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment (as a key project strategy) through the creation of a business model based on social enterprise with an active role for young women leaders. Therefore, through the implementation of this project we want to reduce the gender disparity between men and women with access to training in order to improve young women self-esteem and confidence;

-To offer to young women the motivation to start a business (alone or with others) an all-in-one program (online contents and tools, workshops, group activities, multi-mentor support) in enlarging their knowledge of entrepreneurship, sustainable management, improve attitudes and foster skills needed to initiate and manage an enterprise, despite the lack of women role models. Participants would become their own entrepreneurial model;

-To supply participants with examples and advice concerning financial supports/methods they can access to set up a business through the aid of associated partners, stakeholders, other policy makers involved in the implementation of the project.

The international partnership of the project is composed of: Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania.