Female business owners across the country will benefit from additional mentoring support, Women and Equalities Minister Jo Swinson has announced on Tuesday evening, at the British Bankers' Association (BBA)2014 Mentorsme Awards for Excellence in Women's Enterprise Mentoring, held at the BT Tower.
To celebrate Women's Entrepreneurship Day on Wednesday 19 November, the first ‘Meet a Mentor’ event was launched at the Kensington Roof Gardens, London.
This builds on the success of the government’s ‘Get Mentoring’ project, delivered by the UK Sector Skills Body for Enterprise (SFEDI), which successfully recruited and trained over 15,000 volunteers from the small business community, including over 6,000 mentors who were trained to specifically support female entrepreneurs.
Women and Equalities Minister, Jo Swinson, said: “It is vital that we support female entrepreneurs. There are more women-led businesses in the UK than ever before, and we know that if women were setting up and running new businesses at the same rate as men, our economy could benefit from 1 million more entrepreneurs.
“Mentoring is key to this. It helps to build confidence, develop key business skills and provides a network of contacts for those starting out. That’s why we are funding a series of mentoring events across the UK, launching tomorrow on Women’s Entrepreneurship Day.”
