Increasing the number of female entrepreneurs is a key priority in the EU for reasons linked to economic and social development. The lack of female entrepreneurs is most evident in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Despite high profile role models, overall female innovativeness and participation in the technology sector has decreased and, ”an unconscious bias” still prevails. The UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain are among the countries that have introduced measures to improve the institutional framework for female enterprise, but more needs to be done to overcome individual barriers, making sure that sure the small but growing number of females studying/working in STEM are helped to identify entrepreneurial opportunities and build their business skills. The problem is that our VET institutions are ill-equipped to do so: most are unspecialized in the specific strategies that are shown to work best with female entrepreneurs; their staff are trained in generic/traditional business models (not STEM) and they are not connected to universities /HE institutions to recruit graduate females emerging from STEM subjects. In this context, WISE has a clear goal: increase the number of female entrepreneurs in STEM by transforming their access to and the quality of the training they receive from entrepreneurship VET institutions. To do so, we will: a) Establish sustainable, cross-sector collaborative relationships between actors in STEM entrepreneurship development ecosystem via 4 Regional Partnerships leading to 4 WISE Regional Action Plans. b) Create and publish a WISE Toolkit to facilitate the replication of Regional Partnerships across Europe. c) Develop, implement and publish a suite of multilingual educational resources entitled Start up in STEM for entrepreneurship VET practitioners to update their knowledge and skills, d) Design and implement innovative learning placements for 40 young women with STEM start up potential in high growth STEM enterprises (preferably female led.) The project methodology is highly participative at all stages, involving our three main target groups (training providers such as enterprise centres, colleges and incubators; female entrepreneurs and wider stakeholders) in the following ways: - At least 50 high-level representatives of organizations from VET, entrepreneurship education, and wider economic development will participate in 4 Regional Partnerships - At least 60 professional entrepreneurship teachers and trainers will be trained using the Start up in Stem open educational resources, benefiting approximately 600 female students - At least 230 representatives of stakeholder organizations will participate in multiplier events. - Approximately 7,500 individuals will engage with the interactive online platform with OER. Thanks to improved exposure/availability and improved quality of entrepreneurship education opportunities, WISE will generate an increase in the overall number of potential and existing female entrepreneurs engaged in continuing VET and it is more likely that early stage female STEM entrepreneurs grow their ideas into successful STEM enterprises in the short term. As a result of the Regional Partnerships and Start up in STEM educational resources, managers, teachers and trainers in VET institutions will overcome existing bias, update their own skills and modify service provision in their institutions to be more inclusive and better support high growth STEM enterprises. At regional level, the project will create a more enabling environment for female entrepreneurs and generate the knowledge sharing and feedback loops which will contribute to ongoing improvement and the development of further initiatives. STEM is a particularly important area of focus across Europe, not only because of the scale of the gender gap, but because of its ability to generate high growth businesses which drive innovation and economic development forward in Europe. For this reason, we believe WISE will not only generate significant impact at local level through the Regional Partnerships, but will capture the attention of policy makers and actors further up the ladder nationally and across Europe. In addition, the project has been designed to respond to a genuine need experienced by partner organizations and their counterparts in the vocational education, entrepreneurship support and economic development, all of whom have a vested interest in using the outputs and sustaining the impacts in the long term.
Increasing the number of female entrepreneurs is a key priority in the EU, however, the lack of female entrepreneurs is most evident in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Despite high profile role models, overall female innovativeness and participation in the technology sector has decreased and, ”an unconscious bias” still prevails. Our VET institutions are ill-equipped to tackle this challenge: most are unspecialized in the specific strategies that are shown to work best with female entrepreneurs; their staff are trained in generic/traditional business models (not STEM) and they are not connected to universities /HE institutions to recruit graduate females emerging from STEM subjects. OBJECTIVES + RESULTS ATTAINED In this context, WISE worked to a clear goal: increase the number of female entrepreneurs in STEM by transforming their access to and the quality of the training they receive from entrepreneurship VET institutions. It achieved this goal by:- a) Establishing 4 WISE Regional Partnerships in UK/NI (42 attendees in 5 partnership meetings), Germany (75 attendees in 5 partnership meetings) , Ireland (118 attendees in 5 partnership meetings)and Norway (146 attendees in 5 partnership meetings) involving 381 high-level actors in STEM entrepreneurship development ecosystem including VET, entrepreneurship education, and wider economic development leading to 4 WISE Regional Action Plans and committment to over 20 collective actions to ncrease the number of female entrepreneurs in STEM. Plans have been downloaded as folllows;- English langauge site 1050 Action Plan downloads, German langauge site 737 Action Plan downloads and Norwegian ngauge site 658 Action Plan downloads. b) Created an innovative WISE Toolkit to facilitate the replication of Regional Partnerships across Europe. Published 122 Best Practice Scan Cards with 528 downloads from website, exceeding all expectations with an original target of 400). Another 600+ were circulated to the partners database. c) Developed and published a suite of multilingual educational resources entitled Start up in STEM for entrepreneurship VET practitioners to update their knowledge and skills, • 1 Curriculum produced; • Classroom course downloads English (466), German (452) and Norwegian (327) • 1 Teacher pack produced downloads English (366), German (409) Norwegian (283) • 1 online course produced; 866 learners have completed the course and a further 3,385 have accessed the course (target on application 2,500) • Through pilot testing 60 professional entrepreneurship teachers and trainers were trained using the Start up in Stem open educational resources benefiting over 600 female students d) Designed and implemented innovative learning placements for 40 young women with STEM start up potential in female led STEM enterprises • 256 representatives of VET institutions, HE institutions, STEM students, graduates, entrepreneurs, women in business networks and wider stakeholders participated in our successful multiplier events (target 230) • 13,760 individuals benefitting from accessing WISE website/platform resources (substantially surpassing target of 7,500) • A dissemination diary has been completed by each partner as a way of logging all dissemination activities, including their dissemination activities on their own website and social media channels, project newsletters, presentations and meetings. In total, this comes to XXX recorded disssemination actions over the 2 years reaching many thousands of targets. See dissemination report. • A sustainability strategy was developed to support the sustainability of project activities after the end of the project • Quality Management and Evaluation: An external evaluator was contracted to provide a final evaluation report for the project. • Partner meetings - 5 transnational partner meetings,regular Skype meetings, as well as quarterly partner surveys and regular Skype partner meeings. IMPACT Given this level of project exploitation and traction, the longer term impact of the project is clear:- • WISE has improved the quality and incidence of entrepreneurship education opportunities which will generate an increase in the overall number of potential and existing female entrepreneurs engaged in continuing VET . As a result we know it is more likely that early stage female STEM entrepreneurs will grow their ideas into successful STEM enterprises. • WISE Regional Partnerships have created four more enabling environments for female entrepreneurs through knowledge sharing and committment to action. • Those VET and enterprise participants in the WISE Regional Partnerships have updated their own skills (through 122 best practice Scan Cards) and are modifyng their service provision.