Description
Women frequently bear the primary responsibility for care within their family units. This can have a negative impact on their financial independence, as well as their ability to pursue rewarding professional careers. The internet economy and increased global connectivity opens up many opportunities for women who seek a balance in their lives. But many women lack the technical skills and entrepreneurial know-how that would enable them to fully harness the opportunities that can lead to greater balance and independence. The Girl Power programme will encourage women to explore technology-based self-employment and entrepreneurial options by launching a high-profile programme that will provide them with the business and technology skills, network and peer support they need to make turn their ideas into income-generating opportunities.
Summary of project results
The main goal of the project was to promote entrepreneurial initiatives of women in Talavera de la Reina, making a good use of the ITC potential, with the aim that women access to a sustainable economic and social independence. The project has been developed across six phases, complemented by a last follow-up and dissemination phase. Firstly, several preparatory activities have taken place. These have included the launching of the project and the selection of applicants. The project received 79 applications and 36 were accepted. This phase has been followed by a welcoming phase, which counted with a welcoming session and with a workshop devoted to a first identification of business ideas by the participants, to start working on them. Afterwards, a technological skills training phase has taken place. In this phase, 2 sessions of 6 different workshops have been provided: “my business in the cloud”, “electronic commerce: Prestashop”; “multiplatform apps”; “Android apps”; “iOS apps”; and finally “Internet of Things”. A Moodle platform has been also developed in order to collect all the edited training materials and enable for doubt resolution and continuous feedback and encouraging to entrepreneurs. 34 persons have participated. After this training, a phase of business training has been organized, in which guidance has been provided to 33 entrepreneurs to support the development of their ideas. In addition, mentoring actions have been carried out, which has required the previous detection and training of mentors in Talavera de la Reina, including the elaboration of a Mentoring Manual and the organization of a training session. A total of 19 mentors have been selected, who have provided mentoring support to 20 entrepreneurs. Finally, a consolidation and dissemination phase has been carried out, including a Networking Session and a Closure Session, aimed to develop business relationships with the local business to creating new business opportunities. As a result of the actions, two start-ups have been created and it is expected the creation of 12 more for the next year.
Summary of bilateral results