We are currently seeking funding for this training programme.
If you are interested in our current offer for entrepreneurs, see Entrepreneurship Essentials for Women.

Entrepreneurs’ Training and Mentoring Circle for Women is a concept for a year-long innovative, flexible training programme for women based in Brussels, who want to launch a social or environmental impact business, a social enterprise or a non-profit project.

About

Entrepreneurs’ Training and Mentoring Circle for Women (ETMCW) has been designed to support a diverse group of women living and working in Brussels in becoming economically empowered through entrepreneurship. It will provide them with solid and actionable skills, which will increase their initiative’s likelihood of success.

It is not a general business or entrepreneurship course – instead its design allows participants to focus specifically on their idea for an impact project that they bring to the table.

The skills curriculum is strengthened by a strong ICT element, as today’s entrepreneurial success strongly relies on proficiency in digital skills.

The curriculum also addresses systemic challenges encountered specifically by women and teaches specific leadership and professional skills needed to overcome them on the entrepreneurial journey.

Innovative, responsive and inclusive

ETMCW provides a set of directly actionable skills for women, specific to their project. The participants immediately apply the business or project development principles, concepts or tools explained by a tutor to the project they wish to launch.

The progress of each participant is monitored and the content of classes is adapted and tailor-made to the individual’s needs. This markedly differs from a majority of classroom and online-based business and entrepreneurship courses, which teach a variety of principles that may or may not be relevant to a specific project, context, background or situation.

The responsive design of ETMCW also means that the course can address many important aspects that hold women back in addition to their gender, such as race, origin and class, making the programme truly intersectional.

The course departs from the traditional top-down, classroom-based approach to education, applying instead a mix of teaching methodologies that are highly empowering. It is interactive and participative, and includes circle discussions that build on emergent collective knowledge, experience exchange and mutual support.

The concept has been developed from our experiences gained through the Beginner Entrepreneur Mentoring Programme for Women, which provided solid insight into the needs of women with entrepreneurship aspirations.

Participants

The training will be offered to 10 participants who are local, migrant and expat women living in Brussels, who wish to start or develop a social or environmental impact business, a social enterprise or a non-profit project.

CURRICULUM

The programme is envisaged as a series of weekly 3-hour evening training sessions.

Each module comprises 10 evening classes for 10 participants.

Module 1: Core entrepreneurship skills

Module 2: Core ICT skills for entrepreneurs

Module 3: Leadership and professional skills

Module 1: Core entrepreneurship skills

Throughout Module 1 the participants are tutored on and apply a range of tools and methods for assessing, designing and planning an impact business, social enterprise or a non-profit initiative.

This includes market and needs analysis, minimum viable product philosophy, creating a business plan or project budget, strategic resource allocation and a ‘fast-test-fail-pivot’ method, which minimises potential losses and maximize learning.

Module 2: Core ICT skills for entrepreneurs

Module 2 provides an actionable set of skills in information and communication technology, tailored to the needs of an entrepreneur. This includes website building systems, effective social media management and strategy, web and social media analytics, automation and effective content creation.

The aim is to provide the participants with sufficient understanding of these topics that will allow them to select and use the ICT tools best suited to their projects, skills and financial resources. The knowledge will also support them in recruiting and managing subcontractors or staff for these tasks.

Module 3: Leadership and professional skills

Module 3 covers negotiation skills, management of contractual agreements, effective presentation skills and public speaking, time and resource management, effectiveness vs. productivity, managing failure, dealing with impostor syndrome and relationship management.

Background and aims

Women continue to be under-represented and underfunded in the entrepreneurship and start-up world. At the same time, an increasing number of women hold entrepreneurial ambitions but lack sufficient skills or support to embark on this journey.

Currently, women can obtain entrepreneurship skills predominantly through traditional business training offers, which rarely cater to specific challenges women face on their journeys.

Meantime, there is a high demand for quality training offer for female entrepreneurs. As an example, the Accelerator Program for Women – launched in 2019 by Women in Tech.Brussels, Google Digital Atelier and Elle Magazine – saw 350 applicants compete for 50 available in the course.

The ETMCW is designed to address the gender imbalance in the small business and start-up world by increasing the number of successful enterprises founded and run by women.

It also allows for accounting for an individual circumstance of each person, such as background, origin, family and socio-economic situation. It aims to increase the rates of success among those who do not come from the type of background, which research studies identify as the most conducive of entrepreneurial success (i.e. family’s financial and educational background).

Global impact through local action

Working with women of various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds in Brussels, the second most diverse city in the world, has a strong multiplier effect.

Brussels has 1.2 million residents comprising native Belgian and people of migrant backgrounds in larger volume than metropolises such as London, Paris or Amsterdam. Therefore the results of this training offer can potentially reach not only local women, but also those from unconventional and refugee backgrounds, who live permanently or temporarily in this city.

As participants graduate from the training and gain entrepreneurial experience, they can transfer their newly gained skills to their home communities or subsequent living destinations. They can develop their entrepreneurial ventures in connection with the economies and potential of their countries of origin, thereby also benefiting women who live there.

Long term plans

Each annual round of the training will be accompanied by maintaining a network of alumni. Some of them can subsequently become mentors at successive rounds of training. They could share experiences gained throughout their entrepreneurial journeys, as well as sector-specific advice in which they gain experience and specialise.

Regular annual graduate meetings would create a growing network of women entrepreneurs and an opportunity to deepen the reflection on managing enterprises and leadership.