Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA (part 2): Entrepreneurship and 10,000 Women

 The last blog focused on Women, Responsible Leadership and the MBA by looking at the range of initiatives and resources available on this topic. Now, the second part considers the growth in training programmes specifically focused on women entrepreneurs.

Specifically, we look at PRME signatories involved in the 10,000 Women project started by Goldman Sachs. The project is a five-year global initiative designed to help grow local economies and bring about greater shared prosperity by providing 10,000 underserved women entrepreneurs with business and management education, access to mentors and networks and links to capital. The project is currently operating in 43 different locations around the world and partners with local schools to develop and provide entrepreneurial training. Participating schools offer free certificate programmes for women around entrepreneurship which often also includes mentorship and networking opportunities.

The Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Center of The American University in Cairo has created The 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership Certificate Programs (WEL) for Egypt. The Center works to narrow the gender gap by supporting a pool of talented women entrepreneurs and leaders to become active contributors to the economic vitality of their communities. Over 303 entrepreneurs have been trained since 2008.

In Brazil, Fundação Dom Cabral offers, in partnership with INSEAD, a  Entrepreneurial Women Programme certificate, which covers strategy, finance, marketing, people, logistics and business plan development. Since 2009, there have been twelve classes for women to develop competencies and skills that entrepreneurs need to make their businesses grow. This year, over 200 women have signed up for the next programme. Also in Brazil, Fundação Getulio Vargas offers a similar certificate, while their website provides an overview of the different businesses run by women who have gone through the certificate programme.

In the US, Babson College was been working to unlock the growth and job-creation potential of small businesses across the United States by providing greater access to business education, mentors and networks, and financial capital. Delivered through community college partners at select sites across the US, participating business owners must have a minimum of four employees, been in business for at least two years and post annual revenues of between $150,000 and $4,000,000.

In Peru, the Universidad del Pacifico is also involved in training women entrepreneurs. Because Peru has a well-developed microfinance network, the programme uses these networks for recruiting purposes and offers alumni access to a range of finance options to help them grow their business.

In South Africa, University of Cape Town launched the Raymond Ackerman Academy 10,000 Women program which targets two social issues, increasing unemployment as well as the large and quickly growing youth population. The programme gives students the skills to help them pursue careers, further their studies or start their own business and is open to both women and men. University of Pretoria has a certificate programme for women which takes place for 16 days spread over 4 months and includes 6 months of mentorship, 6 months of community-based women entrepreneur dialogues and ongoing networking events.

In China, Tsinghua University has partnered with Yale to create the Yale-Tsinghua Certificate in Healthcare Management. The program aims to help female Chinese healthcare managers and officials attain knowledge, skills and networks necessary for continued growth in healthcare careers. The programme is looking to train around 500 female Chinese healthcare managers and officials.

In India, the Indian School of Business’ Women’s Entrepreneurs Certificate Programme has had over 550 women entrepreneurs who have successful completed the programme across Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. They also provide a system of mentorship both online and offline.

There are also a large number of signatory schools that have entrepreneurship programmes focused on women which are not part of the 10,000 Women initiative. International Business School in Lithuania in 2010 implemented a project “Promoting Entrepreneurship among Women in Georgia in the Context of Integration into the European Union.” The project was designed to contribute to Georgia’s economic and social development and programs. Promoting women’s entrepreneurship is seen as a preventive measure to reduce women’s unemployment and poverty levels as well as to contribute to one of the strategic goals of the Millennium Development project.