The EU Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan recognises entrepreneurship and self-employment as a key factor for achieving economic growth and job creation. The TEA rates for females (5% of adult population) in the business-driven economies of EU are much lower than in the developing regions of Asia (13%) or in the United States (10%). Promoting young women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurial skills development is a key pillar in UN Women’s Youth and Gender Equality Strategy. INSPIRE US! aims to bring into the light the crucial link between internal motivation and business creation. The project aims to empower future women entrepreneurs by giving them the opportunity to benefit directly from up‐to‐date knowledge in this rapidly‐changing world, and to motivate them to take the risk, develop their own business ideas and become successful “winners” entrepreneurs. By introducing women to the “winner” mindset, the project intends to help women in becoming powerful “agents” of change in order to contribute towards gender equality as it promotes self-employment and entrepreneurship among women. Through a set of different tests, tools and training programmes, the project aims to create a new force within this target group and help women to achieve their objectives as creative, talented, driven and skilled workers. The consortium of partners brings together the best possible expertise and knowledge on the topic and they will assist in the effective development of realistic and valuable programmes and tools through relevant cross-national collaboration, knowledge inter-exchange, and complementarities between the group. The project partners include the following organisations: GrantXpert (CY), STORYTELLME (PT), Four Elements (GR), CESIE (IT), PIA (SL), ISOB (DE). Dr. Hadjichristodoulou from GrantXpert Consulting will be the Project Coordinator of the project who will be responsible for the proper implementation and coordination of the project’s activities. The project aims to deliver 5 key intellectual outputs: Competencies Matrix and Policy Recommendations Report (ISOB); Career Aptitude Assessment tool (PIA); Development of INSPIRE US! Entrepreneurship programme (GrantXpert); Development of CaseVideos Library (CESIE); Women Entrepreneurial Enhancement Web Platform (STORYTELLME). The methodology that will be used to deliver the intellectual outputs is broken down into a series of steps, involving the following key phases: State of the Art & Empirical Study and Analysis; Analysis of primary data; Plan on entrepreneurial training provision; Design of entrepreneurial training plan; Evaluation of the programmes and tools developed; Finalisation of INSPIRE US! Outputs. The key activities that the project will organise in the context of the execution of the project, include: Project management, Secondary and Primary research and analysis, planning and programme design, translation and localisation of programmes, evaluation of training programmes and tools developed, Dissemination and Quality assurance. All project outputs are designed to empower women with skills and to enhance their aptitude towards entrepreneurial actions. INSPIRE US! suggested tools, instruments and contents are based on the most recent and innovative practices that matches the recent way of life of millennials and young women from 25 to 40 years old. This innovative approach is based on immediate and quick information that women can consume rapidly; learning contents based on visual and stimulating materials such as info-graphics or videos; interactive platform that integrates concepts of game design in the eLearning process; and mobile access allowing more flexibility in the learning process. The project is expected to have a positive impact on a number of stakeholders, including the project team members and their organisations, target groups and other relevant organisations/groups, such as associations in women entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship centres, adult training organisations, policy makers, etc. A number of quantitative and qualitative indicators are set to assess whether and to what extent, the project reaches its objectives and results, including among others the number of participants and feedback received through primary research and programme evaluation. The impact of the proposed project can be of higher value to the national and broader EU economy, aspiring to inform policy on how to set new initiatives, tools and training programmes for strengthening and inspiring women entrepreneurship activity. The main target of the project sustainability activities is to continue with a wider implementation of the programme, after its initial evaluation.
Context/background of the project: The INSPIREUS! project, offers an ambitious and forward-looking outlook on strengthening female entrepreneurship. Supporting female entrepreneurs, especially at the start of their entrepreneurial paths, is crucial in realising the creation of more companies led by women on an EU level, whereas, at the same time helping more women in the EU join the active workforces. Across the globe, women participate in paid economic activities less than men. When women do participate, they often work in lower-paying jobs and sectors and have less access to social safety nets. At the same time, it is estimated that closing the gender gap in the workforce would add 28 trillion USD to the global GDP, and that’s only counting the monetary gains, not the human rights and other benefits. For these reasons, we all need to work together to support and remove barriers to women’s economic recovery and empowerment, and entrepreneurship in its various forms is a powerful catalyst to make this a reality. Entrepreneurship can generate jobs for women and their peers and help them tackle EU & worldwide challenges faced. Objectives: The project overall scope is to transform young female entrepreneurs in terms of realizing the connection between internal motivation & business creation. The specific objectives of the project are: a) Develop an inspiring and motivational programme which will offer hands-on experiences to women; b) Investigate the psychological factors of female entrepreneurship, with particular focus on personality and motivational factors; c) Create tools helping future women entrepreneurs to achieve self-awareness; d) Create a community of women entrepreneurs from all over EU. The collaborative environment creates a new “culture” and a network of women entrepreneurs. Women are important agents of change, and harnessing the potential of women entrepreneurs will be crucial for the sustainable and inclusive recovery of economies and societies, especially useful in challenging periods, such as the era of Covid-19. Number, type & profile of participants: The direct target group of the project were future women entrepreneurs (25-40 years) who have developed some skills and professional expertise taking into account their professional experience, but they find themselves without motivation to start a business. These women could be also employed young women who want to improve their soft skills, competencies, entrepreneurial skills, communication skills, etc. The main target group of the project was involved to the project activities from the very early stage: starting with a survey and analysis for the development of a competencies matrix and policy recommendations report (IO1), testing the self-assessment tool & pilot phase of the educational programme (IO2 & IO3), best-testing the training platform (IO5) and providing useful recommendations for improvement. The pilot participants representing the project's direct target group, have also participated to the various multiplier events, helping to spread awareness of the project (89 participants in total). Activities: The project partners have delivered 5 IOs, a very successful C1 training activity, and other project related activities falling under general project management actions. Results & impact: The final evaluation report of the project, proves that the quality of the products delivered in INSPIREUS! is high, whereas the relevance of the topic and the high responsiveness of the target group, were amongst the biggest strengths of the project. In particular, the participation in pilot training as well as registered interest, the high level of partner collaboration in developing all project IOs in full quality, prove the success of the project consistently. Activities such as the C1 hosted in Portugal, have proven to be very useful to consolidate the in depth discussion of the respective topics, to meet stakeholders, to form transnational teams and professional communities, get insight to relevant European environments, as in this case the start-up ecosystem in Lisbon, and therefore strengthen the European dimension of the project. Longer-term benefits: Partners should extend their focus on elaborating the women-specific aspects of the programme, such as specific business and networking culture and mutual encouragement. The project can serve as a useful basis platform, under which sustainable utilisation of the products to further design the material in a concise and easy to understand manner. Moreover, the partners can continue to consider on a deeper level the cultural and economic differences in the partner countries, where in some cases discrimination of women is implicit but significant, while in others the good career opportunities in employment slow down the entrepreneurial aspirations of women; thus it is interesting to expand INSPIREUS! to a larger-scale project.