Entrepreneurial activities are an essential factor in creating employment opportunities as well as in contributing towards economic growth. There is, however, a serious gender gap in most of the EU countries in relation to entrepreneurship.The WO-MENntrepreneurs project aims at ameliorating this situation, by diminishing the gender gap in relation to entrepreneurship at EU level. This will be achieved by providing support, knowledge, techniques and tools for young females who would like to become entrepreneurs. The support will be provided by training sessions organised in Malta, Italy and Spain.In this sense, the project will help the young women involved to acquire knowledge and information in the area of entrepreneurship. The competences gained through the implementation of the project will serve as a base for the female youths to eventually set up their own businesses. After a good understanding of the state of the art in relation to women entrepreneurship in Italy, Malta and Spain (October 2016 – December 2016), all the partners will organise training sessions (that will last 2 days) in their own countries (April 2017). During such activity, professionals and experts on entrepreneurship will provide technical training sessions on the different aspects and phases involved in the creation of a new business, such as (i) how to develop an entrepreneurial idea (ii)how to develop a business plan (iii) how to find funding for the start upThese activities will be planned and implemented through the exchange of good practices and knowledge on the topic among the three partners involved in the project, namely Foundation For Empowering Gender Equality (Malta), ITAINNOVA (Spain) and Euroform RFS (Italy). The transnational project meetings (three in total) will be crucial activities in relation to this.A final conference on women and entrepreneurship will be organised in Malta in August 2017. Such event will be essential for the overall success of the project. During the conference, each partner will present the main project’s outcome in their local context. This event will also serve as the occasion to evaluate to overall results of the projects, through the administration of questionnaires among the participants. In addition to this, this activity will be crucial for the exchange of knowledge on gender disparities in Entrepreneurship at a local and EU level. The project will therefore contribute to raise the entrepreneurship rate for women in Malta, Italy and Spain, contributing towards the local and European smart and inclusive economic growth, with a consequent reduction of (i) the gender gap in relation to entrepreneurship (ii) socioeconomic disparities locally and at a Europena level.
The main aim of the project was to provide support, knowledge, techniques and tools for young females who would like to become entrepreneurs. . In addition to this, the support was provided through 16 hours training sessions organised in all the 3 participating countries. The mentoring sessions were provided by trainers in the field of entrepreneurship. The project was implemented in total for 12 months. The main aim of the project was to train and support women to become entrepreneurs and therefore to: • Encourage women to believe in themselves; • Give women concrete ideas on how to make a business plan; • Support women learning and networking with each other; • Help women’s entrepreneurship to be more visible within our society. The specific objectives of the project were as follows: • To help young women create a network of advisers in entrepreneurship; • To educate females on the available ways of accessing funds for setting up businesses; and • To add value to local economies by increasing local rates related to young entrepreneurs; The participating organisations were the Foundation for Empowering Gender Equality (the Coordinator) Euroform RFS (Partner 1) and ITAINNOVA (Partner 2). The differences between the selected regions created more synergies than gaps and the involved partners learnt from their own experiences.ITAINNOVA is public Technology Centre which mission is to support companies, technology leaders, institutions and anyone who shapes the society towards achieving a new future through innovation and technological development. ITAINNOVA is dedicated to guiding and helping companies, institutions and individuals to take a step towards excellence through innovation and technological development that was previously not possible. Euroform RFS is an Italian VET institution established in 1996 and accredited by the national government of Italian Republic and Calabria Region and operates in sector of vocational training and orientation. Euroform RFS organizes basically tailored training courses in different sectors regarding safety on the job, international trade, business administration and marketing, project management and administration, Italian language courses for foreigners, protection and management of environment, sustainable tourism, italian cuisine, etc. It has developed training on-the-job, e-learning, blended training as Euroform RFS gives a particular attention to ICT- based training, innovative training methods. The Foundation for Empowering Gender Equality encourages and supports gender equality and the development of women and entrepreneurship. Apart from this EU- funded project It took part in an EU funded project (Innovation leaders) under the European Social Fund. The aim of the project was to shortlist the best proposals submitted by local NGOs and companies. The proposal presented by Foundation for Empowering Gender Equality was selected and presented at the EU Commission in Brussels.Undertaken activities: 1). State of the Art Research in all the three (3) regions; 2). Three transnational meetings: 1st meeting was held in Zaragoza, Spain, 2nd meeting was in Rende, Italy and the 3rd meeting was held in Malta. Preparation of training sessions in the 3 regions, the selection of the experts/trainers and the actual training sessions in Malta, Italy and Spain. After the training sessions, the analysis reports were compiled.The Final conference was not held due to the fact the coordinator did not find a free venue to organise the event and the budget proposed initially under the Exceptional costs budget line was not approved for this activity. However, the rest of the planned activities were implemented successfully. In terms of results and impact attained, the project partners managed to attain a big impact in their regions. Each assigned task was implemented according to the application form. The awareness about this project and the training sessions was spread across various channels and the interest of the participants was great. All the above mentioned activities were implemented and achieved successfully. One of the most important outcome of the sessions is the motivation the women had after the training activity. A motivation which encouraged them to ask if there will be further training sessions in this area. Longer-term benefits: 1) Having a network of women trained in entrepreneurship in the 3 regions 2). Having a network of trainers/experts in entrepreneurship, 3).To educate females on accessing funds for start-ups and setting up businesses; 4). To add value to local economies by increasing local rates related to young entrepreneurs;