Women in Enterprise

Projects to support more women into business and tackle the gender gap are set to benefit from a further £200,000.

Ahead of visiting a Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) training event at Edinburgh City Chambers, Minister for Employability and Training Jamie Hepburn announced four projects that will share the funding:

• WES will deliver the internationally recognised Women In Enterprise Ambassadors Programme.
• Investing Women (IW) will develop their project to enable female-led businesses to become investment-ready and bring them together with female investors.
• WES will work with partners across our enterprise networks to deliver a report on international best practice towards tackling the gender gap within enterprise support.
• Scottish Chambers of Commerce will develop and pilot a new “Women’s Enterprise Accelerator” programme to work with women leading small businesses.

Mr Hepburn said:

“If we are to achieve our potential as a nation, it’s important that we give as many people as possible the opportunity to reach their potential as individuals.

“For the past three years, Scotland CAN DO has stood as our national statement of intent towards becoming a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation.

“One key one aspect of that lies in helping less represented groups to realise their potential as entrepreneurs.

“In particular, it is recognised that women could benefit from further assistance and encouragement – not merely because they are less represented, but because of the huge economic potential.

“There is a veritable wealth of talent out there in Scotland’s communities – I firmly believe that. We just need to make sure we’re tapping into all of it.

“And if we do, then we will be in the strongest position we possibly can be to deliver the Scottish Government’s purpose of sustainable economic growth.”

Background

Fully complementary to Scotland CAN DO (www.cando.scot), the ‘Women in Enterprise Action Framework’ was co-developed to acknowledge and tackle the gender-gap in enterprise.

Given the importance, and prominence, of Women’s Enterprise Scotland, Investing Women and Scottish Chambers of Commerce in delivering outcomes shared by the Scottish Government, these organisations were supported through funding on the following terms:

• WES to deliver the Women In Enterprise Ambassadors Programme (£60,000);
• WES to collaborate with the enterprise network towards a report on international best practice towards tackling the gender gap (£20,000);
• IW for the continuance of the Catalyst Programme (£52,000);
• SCC with the funding to pilot the “Women’s Enterprise Accelerator” programme (£68,000).