Enterprising Women leads consortium for UK’s Women’s Enterprise Ambassador Programme
Enterprising Women is leading a new ambassador programme, working in partnership with the Institute of Directors, Her Business and Forward Ladies, to inspire more women across the UK to get involved in enterprise.
Following the closure of Enterprise UK, the European Commission has selected the award-winning networking community Enterprising Women to take over the lead of the UK Women’s Enterprise Ambassador Programme.
As the UK’s largest business support network solely focused on developing female entrepreneurs, Enterprising Women is well positioned to head the ambassador programme to increase entrepreneurial activity amongst women and girls.
Created and managed by YTKO, a Prowess Flagship organisation, Enterprising Women was selected as UK best practice for SME support by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in 2009.
The programme aims to raise enterprise awareness in 20,000 females, with up to 6,000 participating in educational events and 3,000 women and girls involved in some form of entrepreneurial activity before the end of the project in November 2012.
The UK partnership will work closely with and support the European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors (ENFEA), which coordinates women’s enterprise ambassador programmes in 18 countries across the EU.
Bev Hurley, Founder of the Enterprising Women community and holder of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion, commented: “We are delighted to extend the good work of the ENFEA, using inspiring women to motivate others to consider enterprise as an option. Women’s representation in business and self-employment in the UK is far short of their representation in the labour market. We’re confident that our new ambassadors will start to turn this around and arouse interest and motivation towards enterprise.”
Fifty exceptional ambassadors will be selected from a range of channels and participate in a range of activities, including conferences, media engagements, online webcasts, activities in schools, colleges and universities, workshops and policy debates.